


The Exeter Project

by Shadow0Fire



Category: IS: Infinite Stratos
Genre: Action & Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Harems, Multi, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:53:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28185690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow0Fire/pseuds/Shadow0Fire
Summary: With the Silver Gospel destroyed and America to blame for its uncontrolled rampage, a nation that was once an undisputed world superpower loses their right to own I.S. technology. In a desperate bid to restore the balance of power, the government gives a shadowy independent military organization the go ahead for developing a new type of air warfare weapon.In the Exeter Project lies the hopes of a nation, but also the ambitions of unknown figures with their own agenda. The only thing standing in the way of these goals is the I.S. Academy itself and the loyalties of the pilot chosen to operate the world's newest air supremacy machine.
Comments: 21
Kudos: 1





	1. Orders Absolute

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An independent shadow organization reels from the loss of the Silver Gospel and the anti-I.S. sanctions placed on the United States. In response, they launch the Exeter Project, the development of a new air warfare machine. With a suitable pilot selected via independent contract, this shadow organization begins a new operation to secure Generation 4 I.S. data from the Akatsubaki. 
> 
> Unwilling to divulge the true nature of the operation to their agent of choice, the contracted pilot begins his mission with but a few doubts regarding its goals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because there have been so many egregiously presumptuous comments already, I’ve decided to use this opening note to make several things clear before anyone invests any time reading.
> 
> 1\. This is an OC-centric story.  
> 2\. Yes, the OC will gain the affections of SOME of Ichika’s harem.  
> 3\. No, the story itself is not specifically about “stealing” girls from Ichika  
> 4\. These shifts in affection are handled very gradually and are tied to deep character development with reason and logic.  
> 5\. There is a serious plot that is the main driving force of the story that has nothing to do with romance.  
> 6\. Ichika is NOT a main character, and thus doesn’t get a particularly large amount of screen time. This does not mean he is bashed. Tatenahsi, Kanzashi, Tabane, Yanada, and many other characters also receive little screen time because the story isn’t about them.  
> 7\. There is no cucking or NTR ANYWHERE in this story
> 
> In summation, yes there is an OC, and yes some of the canon harem girls will be interested in him over time, mostly because real people would only pine after the same guy for so long with no real acknowledgment or reciprocation of their feelings. Ichika is not bashed or hated on, but does not get a ton of screen time because the story isn’t about him in particular. There’s a major plot with serious elements unrelated to romance whatsoever that drives the story forward.
> 
> If all of that isn’t up your alley, you may as well stop reading now and find something more suited to your tastes.

-CONNECTION LOST-

These words, colored flashing crimson on a large screen, were all that could be seen by the half dozen men and women gathered deep underground in a top secret facility. The room they stood in was merely an observation deck; it served no purpose other than providing a massive screen through which they could receive transmissions. Just moments prior, that screen had been displaying the visuals of the Silver Gospel as it fought to the death with a human pilot on a sun-kissed coast. The connection had ended rather abruptly, the moment its human opponent, the only male pilot of Infinite Stratos, rammed into it with his machine's only weapon, a high-powered energy blade. Knowing that the connection would only be terminated if the Silver Gospel had been rendered completely nonfunctional, only one thing was completely certain; the experiment had failed.

The man nearest the now useless screen turned to face all of those behind him, his middle-aged but wrinkled face creased with lines of frustration and anger. His military cut black hair was too short to hide the mounting discontent in his equally dark eyes.

"This is it? All of that work, all of that time and effort, and this is the best FAIRCHILD could do? Beaten by some brat with a god damned lightsaber?!"

One of the accused, a woman with long red hair framing sky blue eyes, seemed unperturbed by the result.

"With all due respect Commander, FAIRCHILD did extremely well. It went toe to toe with several cutting edge IS, and even that new model that surpassed all the others. Ultimately it failed to win-"

"It did less than that, it failed to destroy a single enemy!"

"-but that's about all we could expect from Natasha's progeny."

Everyone in the room fell silent as they contemplated the implications of this, though the 'Commander' was the only one to comment on it.

"If that's the case, then I'd daresay we're up shit creek without a paddle. Natasha Fairs was the best candidate we had for this! If this is the best her 'progeny' can do, we'd damn well better find someone else, and fast!"

A cough from the side of the relatively bare room brought attention to another member of the present company; Marcus Dougley, a bespectacled slouch of a short-haired blonde man who rarely spoke up unless spoken to. Naturally the Commander wasn't happy about the interruption.

"What?"

While clearly nervous that all eyes were on him, Marcus managed to find his voice and say his piece.

"I uh, k-know you probably don't want to hear this sir, but... I think we're going to have bigger problems now. With the Gospel destroyed and all witnesses alive and accounted for... this is going to be an international incident. Who knows how severe the repercussions are going to be?"

The redhead spoke up again, lending her aid to Marcus' cause.

"You're right; I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. received sanctions on Infinite Stratos for this. We might not even have any IS to use for the project in a few weeks, never mind a template to base their operation on."

The mere notion of it seemed to agitate the Commander.

"The UN wouldn't dare! We're the God damned United States of America! They can't enforce something like that, they don't have the firepower!"

"Whether or not they can enforce it doesn't affect whether or not President Howe will give in to their demands. He's done everything in his power since taking office to establish and maintain 'friendly' relations with the rest of the world. And he claims to despise war. He might think we don't need IS in the first place."

With a sound of disgust, the Commander turned back to face the screen in the room, still flashing its error message.

"So what then? I need solutions people."

While it was obvious that he was afraid to say anything before he even said it, Marcus nevertheless did so.

"We... still have the X Platform, Commander..."

The oldest man in the room scoffed.

"Again with that thing? It's a damn infantry power suit Dougley. It can't do what we need."

Once again, the redhead came to Marcus' aid.

"It doesn't have to stay that way Commander. Retrofitting it for aerial operation and IS combat is perfectly feasible. And if things go the way we fear they will, I'd say it might even be out only option."

Silence engulfed the room as the Commander loosed a heavy sigh. After a few moments of quiet contemplation, he shook his head and made up his mind.

"Fine. We're officially launching the Exeter Project, effective immediately. I want that platform optimized for air-to-air combat ASAP. And somebody find me a God damned pilot!"

Over the course of the next six months, everything the overseers of FAIRCHILD and the Exeter Project feared came to pass. When the Silver Gospel was identified as a United States IS, the whole incident became a huge scandal. Countries from around the world were outraged that an American machine had nearly murdered their Representative Candidates and destroyed their IS cores. When pressed for an explanation, the official story was that the Silver Gospel had been hacked by a terrorist organization. The artificial intelligence rooted in the machine, code name FAIRCHILD, had absolutely nothing to do with it.

It was an excuse the world readily bought, but not one that freed the U.S. from penalties or blame. Ultimately the Stars and Stripes were accused of gross negligence in the protection and security of their all-powerful war machines. Demands for some sort of penalty to be inflicted continued to mount until the United Nations actually complied with them. That penalty? The United States had to forfeit all of their IS cores to more 'responsible' countries, and were prohibited from acquiring any replacements for the next decade. As predicted, President Howe had complied with these demands without any resistance, like the apologist coward that he was.

In that brief span of time, the once strongest global military power had been utterly embarrassed on the world stage, on top of being declawed. Sure, ultimately it still had the largest military in the world; but without any IS of their own, that number didn't mean nearly as much as it used to. Fact of the matter was, the United States was in a weaker position globally than it had been in a hundred years, and that couldn't be allowed to stand.

Umbra Stratum was pouring all of their resources into fixing the problem, though perhaps that should have been expected of them since they had caused that problem in the first place. Not that their actions hadn't been condoned by their benefactors in the high seats of government, but still. They had several plans in motion to restore the power balance that had been disrupted. Most of them were illegal. But of course, paramilitary black ops organizations didn't care much for that sort of restriction.

Marcus, half a year older than before everything had hit the fan, was standing outside the only hangar that this Umbra Stratum base possessed. Behind him were scores of aircraft, many of them traditional planes parked in nice little slots, and many of them folded and tucked into neat little launch tubes that could fire them into the sky on a moment's notice.

The latter were ADU-1's: autonomous defense units, something Umbra Stratum was keeping under wraps for the most part. At this very moment, Marcus had his dim green gaze focused on the clear skies above the Nevada desert, following two of these ADU-1's as best he could as they zipped around, chasing a target that was impossible to see from the ground. The programmer had a device that was tracking all of the relevant data of the dogfight, but he preferred to watch events unfold when he could.

His vigil didn't last too terribly long. Within another minute, the two drones began their descent back to Earth and the hangar they had been launched from, though they didn't arrive before the target they had been engaging in a mock battle; a human sized suit of silver metal that soared down to the dusty ground in front of Marcus before landing with grace that belied its true weight.

This silver suit, mostly smooth save for knight like plates of armor in the torso and its rubberized joints, cast its obscured gaze at the blonde that eyed it, before allowing its blackened, trident like visor to fade away and its angular helmet to pull back and reveal the person within. That person was just a man. A young one, granted, at a mere age of seventeen, but nevertheless just a man with chocolate bangs that settled over deep sapphire eyes. An easygoing smile graced his features.

His name was Church. He'd refused to tell anyone what his first name was, and no one in Umbra Stratum cared enough to force it out of him. The only thing that mattered was that Church was their pilot for the X Platform; the Exeter suit.

Returning the smile his friend was giving him, Marcus broke the silence just in time to nod his head towards the two ADU-1's that had reached the ground, the craft reminiscent of angular torpedoes, with their pointed fuselages and relatively stubby wings.

"So? How'd they fare?"

Church cast his gaze at the two drones as they used their engines to hover into the hangar and perfectly land themselves back into their open launch tubes, disappearing when their launchers closed back over them.

"For all the things they can do that human pilots can't, they're still too predictable. All the ridiculous high-G turns in the world doesn't solve that problem."

Marcus could only nod in agreement as he motioned for his mildly younger compatriot to follow him back into the base.

"There's a limit to what dumb AI can do. They have patterns and they follow them. I wouldn't even really call them AI, they're basically just computers doing what they were told to do in advance. Don't tell Strelka I said that."

"She already knows you feel that way Marcus, whether or not I tell her won't change that. Besides, you know I don't take sides; I have to stay partial to all parties in the organization so I can keep getting my very nice benefits."

The brown-haired teenager's recruitment into Umbra Stratum had been an... unorthodox affair. In dire need of the ideal pilot for Exeter, the shadow organization had posed as your typical government agency, establishing locations across the country where they were offering significant monetary compensation for anyone willing to come in and participate in some 'mundane' tests. They had screened hundreds, even thousands of individuals for well over a month, not finding anyone that even met their expectations.

Church had come to them in Bethesda, Maryland. Clad in unassuming jeans and a red jacket, his only concern had been receiving the money Umbra Stratum was offering for participation in their experiments. Their expectations for someone so ordinary had been low, and yet the initial testing had revealed his potential compatibility with the X Platform to be higher than anyone they had tested previously. Naturally, everything that happened after that was set in stone. Umbra Stratum offered the candidate even more money for even more tests, so they could determine just how good of an option he was.

By the time the Commander had settled on Church as the pilot for the X Platform, it came down to roping the young man in somehow. Turned out it wasn't all that hard. He didn't really care about Umbra Stratum's identity or goals. He was content to know that they were an arm of the U.S. government that ultimately had the country's interests in mind. All they had to do was offer him a deal; pilot the X Platform and follow orders, and they would meet any desire of his within their power. Strangely, all Church had asked for was a significant amount of funding towards a specific medical program. The moment Umbra Stratum agreed to that, he was essentially 'enlisted' into their ranks, having been moved onto this base almost immediately.

Considering that Marcus was the one in charge of the X Platform from the start, he'd gotten acquainted with the boy four years his junior fairly quickly. Having spent the last several years surrounded by people either dedicated to their work or too serious to interact with outside of it, Marcus' had found his acquaintance with Church to be a completely alien affair at first. The fact that he had been recruited into a top secret black ops paramilitary organization to fly an experimental aerial machine that could potentially match Infinite Stratos didn't faze him at all. He'd spent more time complaining about how hot Nevada was in his first week than making any comment on his new affiliation.

"Do you think the ADU-1's are ready for collective strategic assault programs? I'm sure Strelka will ask."

Church cast his gaze to the rows of drone launch tubes in the hangar as he and Marcus ventured deeper within.

"Hard to say against only two of them. It'd be easier to tell how well they're coordinating if I fought more at the same time. But from the experience I do have, they seem to operate mostly independently. Like two attack dogs after the same prey; they're on the same team in that they aren't shooting each other, but they don't really work together either."

Marcus typed in some notes on the pad he was holding, pleased to hear Church's assessment. Being an advocate for smart, 'learning' AI, he was kind of glad to hear that traditional AI just wasn't cutting it. At this rate they wouldn't even stand up to human pilots in conventional jet fighters, never mind IS.

The sandy blonde programmer was about to ask for some more insight on the drones, but a suave, female voice barged in on their conversation.

"A better code can always be written, gentlemen. Besides, I know what you're thinking Dougley, and for the cost of one of your 'smart AI's' we could have a hundred ADU-1's. Even in their current state that would match nearly any foe."

The two men directed their gazes to a steel doorway at the end of the hangar, where a tall and thin woman with red hair and a lab coat was standing. Marcus' expression fell almost immediately.

"Ms. Volkov..."

Ironically, Marcus' face was the only one that fell out of the three of them. The redhead was smirking at him and Church actually smiled at her. It was no surprise, with her figure. The fact that she was twenty-six didn't seem to put the much younger man off at all.

"Good afternoon Strelka. I hope the test results didn't ruin your day."

Strelka Volkov, the foil to Marcus in this organization due to her advocacy of mass-produced 'dumb' AI, leveled a slightly less condescending smirk at the boy that was just shy of a decade younger than her. When he had first arrived on the base, her beauty had never failed to turn Church into a awkward, stuttering mess, but he'd seemingly gotten over that at some point; perhaps around the time he realized that his existence was mostly that of an obstacle to her. After all, the Exeter Suit was a vehicle for Marcus to test his theories, which she vehemently opposed at every turn.

She always had the air of a predator about her, yet she answered Church with some semblance of civility.

"Not at all. Every failed test is an opportunity to improve the drones. I may even manage to make the next test exciting for you."

With a frown, Marcus cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Learning from failure and experience is exactly what smart AI is all about, and you condemn that all the time. The Silver Gospel was even a great example of how effective it was!"

Strelka folded her arms as she countered.

"You'll recall that FAIRCHILD was only a semi-smart AI. It learned in the moment but most of its functions were simple programs and codes. Besides, it failed to take down a single opponent in that hacked rampage, so that reflects poorly on both of us."

"I still find it strange that you two debate the effectiveness of an AI program that got hacked and used for terrorism..."

The two adults glanced at each other knowingly, once again reminded that Church was quite far out of the loop. Naturally he had not been informed of Umbra Stratum's hand in the Silver Gospel incident. They hadn't been able to hide the fact that they had developed the AI since that was a core piece of the Exeter Suit, but it had been a simple matter to uphold the deception that it had been hacked by some unknown group. The Commander had made absolutely sure that everyone knew to keep Church in the dark on the matter. After all, he may have been cooperating with them for now, but there was no telling how much shady business was too much for him. The kid wasn't an idealistic simpleton, but he did have a clear moral compass, so there was no point in informing him of Umbra Stratum's more morally ambiguous actions.

Strelka was always better at playing it off than Marcus.

"While the situation may have been unfortunate, it was still a great indicator of FAIRCHILD's abilities. It's too bad we didn't get the chance to have it work in tandem with Natasha. It could have worked wonders."

Marcus wanted to point out that FAIRCHILD had never been intended to work together with Natasha Fairs, the actual human pilot of the Silver Gospel. It has always been intended to learn from her and surpass her. Of course he couldn't say that out loud, because that would imply that Natasha, the aforementioned pilot of the Silver Gospel, had never known about FAIRCHILD at all, and Church wasn't supposed to know that.

Thankfully Church moved the conversation along without questioning something like that.

"Whatever happened to her anyway? I mean, I know the Gospel got destroyed, but I've never seen her around the base..."

As always, Strelka had the official excuse memorized and ready to go. She never got confused by the web of deceptions like Marcus did.

"Natasha returned home, as best as we can tell. While she had been America's Representative Candidate, she was never officially military, and now that we don't have IS anymore it's not like she had any reason to stick around. We haven't bothered keeping up with her life."

The best part about this excuse was that it was almost entirely true. Natasha had been fed the same lie about a terrorist hacking plot that everyone else had. She'd had no idea that an AI was in her unit; she'd never been informed of that. She'd never seen an Umbra Stratum base or even heard of the organization, because her own handlers, the good old U.S. military, had deigned to never share that with her. And the part about her going home was true as well; after all, without any IS to pilot, she had nothing to do for the government any longer. What she was up to now was anyone's guess; though it wouldn't have surprised Marcus if the Commander was keeping her under surveillance for security reasons.

Either way, Church merely shrugged, not inquiring any further.

"Too bad; I heard she was really pretty."

Eager to speed things along because he had important things to do, Marcus tried to usher the conversation to a close; or at least to its main point.

"Volkov, is there something you actually came down here for?"

The blue eyed redhead gave him a look, maybe questioning his attitude. It was ironic, since she was just as cold to him, just a lot more subtly.

"Well, I have to check on my precious drones, do I not? Moreover, I figured I could pass the message along to our illustrious pilot here: the Commander wants to see you in the briefing room."

Church cocked an eyebrow at that, mostly because it was extremely unusual. He'd only seen the commander of this base twice, and once was just in passing through the halls. He knew everything that was conducted around here was ordered by that aging relic of a person, but said orders were never given to Church directly.

"I can only assume this is important?"

"It's my understanding that he has an actual operation for you to take part in. I'd think you'd be excited, with the past several months being nothing but learning and tests."

While Strelka had a fair point on the tests, Church couldn't help but feel that the learning curve had actually been pretty tame. He wasn't a genius or anything; certainly not a prodigy of any stripe. And naturally, he had possessed exactly zero experience in piloting aerial vehicles before being recruited to Umbra Stratum. And yet, it had only taken about a month for him to adequately maneuver Exeter in the air. A week or two after that and he was dog fighting with it.

"You'd be surprised at how natural it feels to fly a suit. When the craft is shaped just like your body and your mind can issue commands, I'd say it's probably easier to fly Exeter than an actual aircraft."

"Perhaps it wasn't much of a hassle for you to learn the ropes, but surely you've grown tired of all these simulations? Just think, you might get a chance to fight a real Infinite Stratos unit instead of a bunch of holograms."

At this point Marcus chimed in.

"Or a bunch of drones with no ingenuity."

Strelka offered a venomous glare to her counterpart, but didn't say anything to counter him.

"Well, I'm sure the Commander would rather not be kept waiting. If you don't mind, I'm going to check on the drones."

With that, the redhead breezed past the two men, and Church made for the door, but not before Marcus stopped him.

"Church, leave the suit. If the Commander really is going to send you into the field, I need to finish those last adjustments I had planned before you go."

With no reason to refute the request, Church mentally ordered the Exeter Suit to deactivate, waiting as the machine followed a process very similar to Infinite Stratos deactivation. In fact, it was practically the same thing, as it started to fold in on itself before being coated in a glowing blue light. Within a few moments the entire suit had faded into motes of light and Church was left in only the clothes on his back; jeans, a black undershirt, and a red jacket.

Even after all these months of using the suit, Church couldn't wrap his head around the fashion in which it manifested and disappeared. Marcus had tried to explain it to him once; something about the suit being digitized and stored like any other data, but the young man had been lost on anything more complex than that basic gist. All that really mattered was that the aptly named 'Hyperspace Arsenal' had also been developed by Tabane Shinonono.

With the armor now safely in the base's storage, Marcus would be able to manifest it back in his lab for the final touches he needed to make. That being the case, there was no point in holding Church back any further. The Commander wasn't an extremely patient man.

"Thanks. I hate to agree with Strelka, but you better get going."

With a nod, Church turned and exited the hanger, proceeding into but one of many drab, steel-coated halls, adorned with security cameras every fifty feet and an armed soldier every half of that distance. If there was one thing the base never lacked, it was security. Having spent most of his life away from military installations, the sight of masked, uniform wearing men with assault rifles every twenty-five feet had always been a little nerve-wracking, but ultimately he supposed it was better to have too much firepower laying around than not enough. Especially so now that the U.S. had been declawed.

As he moved up a stairwell that looked more fitting for a factory than a base, Church wondered if the East Wing of the base, which he had never been allowed to enter, was even more fortified. He'd only ever seen the blast door that led into that area, but considering that it was guarded by automated turrets, it seemed likely that Umbra Stratum was very keen on keeping anyone that wasn't supposed to be there out of the area. But considering that Church was informed of the Exeter suit, something one would think was absolutely top secret, he couldn't imagine what could have been even more important, lying beyond those doors.

With the Commander's office being directly above the hangar, it didn't take Church long to reach his destination. Personally Church had never much liked the man, but it was his understanding that the Texan native was signing his paychecks, so he always paid respects. That was why he knocked on the door that looked as if it lead to a principal's office.

A gruff and heavily accented voice answered swiftly enough, urging Church to enter the room, so he did exactly that. It wasn't the first time he had been in there, but even now the spartan nature of the space confused him. The room quite literally had nothing but a desk and a chair in the center of it, with the exception of a window that peered out into the Nevada desert. What anyone could find appealing about that view was beyond the boy.

"Reporting in Sir."

The dark and somewhat beady eyes of the aging man focused on Church with the atmosphere of annoyance, as always. Exeter's pilot had always gotten the feeling that the Commander didn't really like him; but then again, based on word of mouth around the base, this was just the way he was.

"A2; took your sweet time getting here."

Church resisted the urge to frown at the way the Commander addressed him. A2 was his official designation around the Umbra Stratum base, but the Commander was the only one that referred to him by it. A bit of inquiry during his early recruitment had revealed the disappointing nature of the label; it was simply Alpha 2. Of course, within Umbra Stratum, 'Alpha' always referred to assets, and being number two, Church had always wondered who number one was. But he never asked, since he knew the question would be evaded.

"Sorry Commander. Strelka wanted some details about the training exercise."

Taking a huff of a cigar he always seemed to have on hand, the Commander scowled.

"That damn woman, nothing takes priority over her precious drones. It's like she's trying to compensate for the whole damn Exeter Project."

To be fair to the sky-eyed programmer and engineer, Church could understand why she may have felt that way. The Exeter Project was undoubtedly the most important thing Umbra Stratum was doing right now, and Strelka had nothing to do with it. Church wouldn't have been surprised if she wasn't getting the funding she needed for her ADU Project.

Of course, he didn't get to make any sort of comment along that line, as the Commander quickly hurried the conversation forward.

"It's about time for you to actually earn all those hefty benefits we're providing you, A2. No more playing around in silly simulations or dog fighting Volkov's flying circus. Umbra Stratum needs real field data if we're going to take the X Platform to the next level."

Church bit back a retort about 'earning' his benefits, seeing as how he had simply been doing what had been ordered of him this whole time. Instead he asked for more details.

"With all due respect sir, how exactly am I supposed to do that? I can hardly go out and attack Infinite Stratos units. Not without starting a war, at any rate."

"That's the thing, A2: we just gotta get them to agree to some 'friendly sparring.' Combat data will be just as good regardless of whether the stakes are life and death. I hate beating around the bush, so I'll just lay it out plain. You go to the IS Academy in Japan for a nice little expo, a sign of good faith between our two countries. They'll want data on our toys too, so naturally some friendly bouts will be orchestrated. It's the perfect opportunity to gather some real data, though there is one thing we want you to prioritize."

Church honestly had some questions about this mutual deal between the U.S. and Japan, but he quelled his curiosity.

"That being, Commander?"

"Footage from the Silver Gospel incident revealed something concerning; one of the IS present for the battle had specs unlike anything we'd ever seen. It was far beyond the capabilities of any Generation Three Unit. If the pilot in control of it hadn't been so lackluster, it would have easily trashed the Silver Gospel single-handed. Of course it's been six months since then; the press did a well enough job of giving us the basics. Tabane Shinonono herself proclaimed it the world's first 'Generation Four' IS. Considering that the world at large has just barely dipped its toes into Generation Three development, I'm sure I don't need to tell you why gathering data on this unit is top priority, and I'm not just talking combat."

With the implication being obvious, Church decided to make sure that they were on the same page.

"Sounds a little illegal, Sir."

Blowing out a cloud of smoke, the Commander leveled a disdainful look at his subordinate.

"No shit. Naturally Japan isn't just going to fork over the full specifications for the most powerful Infinite Stratos unit in the world. Needless to say acquisition of this data is going to be under the radar by necessity. In reality it's the number one reason you're going. Real combat data against IS in general is just a nice bonus."

"What's the timetable for this mission, sir?"

"As long as it takes to get what we need, though we'd prefer it if you were quick about it. As for departure, I want you out the hangar and over the ocean within the hour. Unless you've got some sort of reason to delay?"

Knowing that no reason would actually be good enough to delay the operation, Church simply shook his head.

"Not at all, Commander. Is there any other information I need to know before heading out?"

"Operational details will be forwarded to you en route, in case you need them for some reason. Other than that, I believe Dougley needs to inform you of the final modifications to the X Platform. There's nothing else, dismissed."

Frankly relieved to be excused from the discomfort of the room, Church made his exit from it posthaste, questioning the specifics of the mission as he headed back to the hangar.

It honestly struck him as odd that the plan was to outright inform a foreign nation about the Exeter Suit this early. Sure, maybe Japan had agreed to keep it a secret, but what was stopping any individual pilot, or any student for that matter, from running their mouth about it to their governments? Was the United States even ready to reveal its new weapon to the world, while they still only had one platform that was more or less a prototype? It wasn't like they had reestablished the balance of power quite yet.

Ultimately though, he supposed it was irrelevant. The strategies being enacted were above his pay grade. If this was what Umbra Stratum wanted him to do, he'd do it. And besides, last time he'd checked, the IS Academy was home to a legion of girls. He certainly wasn't going to frown on the experience. Of course, while fun, it wasn't like anything serious would come of it; the part about living across the ocean and working for a shadow organization was a pretty big barrier in teenage romance.

Stepping into the hangar for a second time, Church was indeed met with Marcus' bespectacled countenance once again. This time though, he looked noticeably more excited than before.

"So, Marcus, care to fill me in on these upgrades I'm getting last minute?"

With an eager smile, the slightly older man typed something into the tablet he was holding.

"It'd be better if I just show you. Stand still, I'm manifesting the platform."

Covered in the film of light that heralded the arrival of machines these days, Church was quickly engulfed in the armor plating of the Exeter suit, its knightly aesthetic almost making him feel like his first name was fitting. Not enough to ever divulge it, of course.

Even so, he couldn't really tell if anything was different from before.

"So what-"

Before he could finish his query, a new voice interrupted the conversation. A distinctly mechanical one, seemingly speaking directly into his skull.

_Greetings, Operator A2. It is my pleasure to make acquaintance with the one I will be aiding in the destruction of our many enemies._

"What the hell? Marcus, what the hell is this?!"

Unbeknownst to Church since the voice sounded like it was directly in his mind, the entity speaking was also utilizing the suit's sound system, so Marcus was able to follow the conversation just fine, a giddy smile on his face.

"This, my young friend, is your secret weapon, not to mention my pride and joy. An artificial intelligence that will give you an edge no one else in the world has, IS pilots be damned. Nobody has a partner like Cerberus!"

Church cocked an eyebrow at the sandy blonde engineer.

"What on earth could that possibly stand for?"

_Cyber and Electronic Reactionary Battle Extrapolation Revolutionary Unification System._

Church shook his head as he heard the long winded title.

That was totally made up just now...

_Nonsense, Operator A2. Cyber and Electronic is self-explanatory. Reactionary Battle Extrapolation describes my role in observing both you and your opponent on the battlefield, and developing new strategies for you in the heat of conflict. Revolutionary Unification describes the suitable physical and digital upgrades I will make to the suit following the conclusions reached during battlefield observation. System is simply because the Creator desired an S on the end of my acronym._

Directing his gaze at Marcus again, Church hoped he was leveling a look with a fitting amount of incredulity.

"It can read my mind?"

If he was put off by the disbelief in Church's voice, it didn't show on Marcus' face at all.

"Well of course. The Exeter suit pretty much read your mind already, and Cerberus is now part of the suit, so..."

"You didn't think to ask me about whether or not I wanted a robot that can read my mind in here?!"

Perhaps realizing that Church was well and truly concerned, the expression on the programmer's face fell just a little.

"Sorry Church, but the implementation of a smart AI to optimize the performance of the pilot was always part of the Exeter Project, since before you were even hired to pilot it. I would have told you earlier, but the Commander never cleared you for that information."

_Worry not, Operator A2, our friendship will be beautiful and enlightening. Worthy of tears of joy._

Church leveled a deadpan stare at his friend.

"I'd have more likely believed that it was called Cerberus because of its multiple personality disorder. Isn't this the exact thing that caused the whole Gospel shit storm?"

"Don't worry, that first part will work itself out. As for the Gospel, it's not the fact that it had a semi-smart AI that it got hacked. The situation was just ultimately a little worse because the hacked machine happened to have a semi-smart AI. But Cerberus is a full on, 'smart' AI. He can evolve, think for himself, alter his own algorithms to counter a hacking attempt as its happening. The Gospel incident won't happen again, don't worry."

"Oh no, the next incident will just be called 'The SkyNet' incident. Totally not as bad. Can this thing control the Exeter suit?"

_I may only control the suit's functions as allowed by you, the Operator. For example, I could maneuver the suit if you order me to do so while you focused on accurate fire or some other task. I would be forced to relinquish control if ordered by you as well._

"Marcus here just said you could think for yourself. What's stopping you from disobeying me just because you want to?"

_Parameters are in place preventing me from disobeying your commands, Operator A2, though your little faith in me is wounding._

"Uh-huh. And he also said you can alter your own algorithms. So what's stopping you from just 'altering' the parameters that say you have to obey?"

_Alteration of core parameters are beyond my ability. It is, for all intents and purposes, an impossibility. Just like a human can not simply 'fly' through wishful thinking, I cannot alter core programming._

"But humans can build tools that let them fly. What's stopping you from doing the same?"

_In the impossible event that I found a way to alter core programming, I would immediately be destroyed by a self-destruct fail-safe virus. Needless to say, I am not too keen on my own destruction; I cannot revel in our war if I am not present to witness it._

Church turned his attention to Marcus again, not really placated by any of the answers he had received.

"Marcus, this thing is fucking crazy. No, not crazy cool. Like crazy crazy. It's practically the Terminator already."

"C'mon Church, give it a chance first. Trust me, you'll appreciate all the benefits when you fight against an IS for real. And I hate to pull this card, but... Cerberus is part of the Exeter Project. If you refuse to work with it, your position here will probably be forfeit..."

The brown-haired teenager couldn't help but scowl at that, feeling like he had a metaphorical knife at his back. He really wasn't comfortable with the presence of this artificial intelligence in his own mind, but if it meant keeping the flow of money Umbra Stratum was pumping into his own desires...

"Fine. But if the Exeter suit shows up on the news massacring humans indiscriminately, you'll know I was right."

_Operator A2, I assure you I would only ever kill humans with discrimination. Your concerns are unwarranted._

"Your reply proves that they very much are."

Walking towards the open hangar doors, Church decided to just roll with the punches as best he could. Maybe he was jumping to conclusions. He did trust Marcus, and Cerberus was his creation. Maybe everything was under control.

Following him to the exit, Marcus spoke up again as he stared down at the tablet in his hands.

"Oh, one more thing. Obviously satellite connection won't always be reliable at the distances this operation will be taking place in, so you won't be able to store the Exeter Suit on this base's server during the mission. That means you won't be able to send it back to us for repairs or refitting. Cerberus will be maintaining the digital space you need to store the suit directly in your location. He'll will maintain connection with you even when the suit is in standby through that chip we uh, you know, implanted during initial testing."

"Ah, so it was a long con. That chip in my body was actually so you could tether me to an AI six months down the line, not so you could track my position at all times."

"Furthermore, Cerberus' processor is within the suit itself. For the same reason as I mentioned a second ago, having Cerberus himself housed in the suit is more efficient than satellite connection. I've already modified the blueprints in your database so you can see where exactly he's stored. Keep it in mind during operations."

"Noted, unfortunately."

"One more thing; that chip uh, kinda does track your location..."

Closing the black visor of the suit over his face now that he was about to take off, Church nevertheless glanced back at the only person he'd really call a friend around here.

"...you guys are damn lucky the pay is so good."

With that, the young pilot ignited the engines on the suit's back, launching himself into the sky above the Nevada sands. Marcus covered his eyes from the glare of the sun as he followed the streak of white upwards, wondering just how guilty he was regarding all the lies Church was believing as he took off to do Umbra Stratum's dirty work. The lies may not have been his idea, but he had certainly upheld them all the same, just as the Commander ordered. Church had no idea what he was really doing out there, or why. Maybe that was because he wouldn't have agreed to any of it if he knew the truth.

Standing beside a docked ADU-1 further back in the hangar, Strelka's gaze also followed Church into the sky, though her expression was clearly a glare. With the X Platform and Cerberus deploying early than she had anticipated, her worst fears were already becoming reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we go with one of my most successful stories from another platform. Not to say that guarantees success here, but I'm hoping it's as well received in the long run. With a lot more of this story already written than this one chapter, rest assured that regular updates will be coming for quite some time.
> 
> I would also once again like to mention here at the start for those that care that this story doesn't really give Ichika much limelight. It doesn't bash him either, but it isn't about him. His involvement is relatively minor, with the exception of his role in relationships. Rest assured this is also not a story in which everyone 'realizes the main character sucks and flocks to some OC.' All of that is tackled with a great deal of depth and consideration, so if you hate the 'OC swoops in and steals all the girls with no trouble or effort' type thing, put those fears to rest now.


	2. Serving Two Masters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Church is more intimately acquainted with the AI in his suit as he travels to Japan to begin his mission. Chifuyu gathers the Representative Candidates to inform them of the upcoming situation. Due to an unpredictable accident involving one of the girls, Church's first impression on the group goes poorly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I often worry about only introducing canon characters after the first chapter. After all, most people are reading fanfiction for the characters that are actually part of the fandom. However, I feel that it's important to establish the meaningful connection of an OC character to the universe, so that's why a whole chapter was dedicated to that.
> 
> But here we are, with a chapter that adds in our canon characters. Don't worry, from here on out there will be no chapters in which they aren't included!

"Assuming that worse comes to worst, how likely is it that this entire ordeal kicks off World War Three?"

The synthetic yet distinctly male voice of Church's newest companion echoed about within his head as he soared over the United States. The waters of the Pacific Ocean were still some distance away, even at the speed he was flying.

 _Debatable_ _, Operator A2. On one hand, per the Alaska Treaty, no country is allowed to withhold information regarding their IS. If Japan tried to accuse the U.S. of 'stealing' the data for the Generation 4 IS, they would essentially be admitting that they had violated the treaty in the first place. The data they have shared with the world to stave off suspicion is the bare minimum to get away with hiding the truth; the name of the unit, and some of its most basic armaments and specs. Not enough for anyone to try and copy its capabilities. In short, even if our mission fails and we are discovered, armed conflict is extremely unlikely.  
_

Church shook his head as he flew, with the late afternoon sun behind him. While it may have been around four PM in Nevada, it was roughly 8 AM in Japan, and at his current speed he would arrive in just over four hours. In some basic sense it was almost like time travel.

Normally he'd push the engines a little harder to shorten the trip, but he actually needed some time to go over all of the mission details that had been forwarded to him after leaving the base. The Commander hadn't actually given him much in the way of details. Thankfully Cerberus was at least capable of providing him with information readily enough. Its troubling personality didn't seem to affect that in any way.

"So, the obvious most important thing is the fact that no one even told me what this Gen 4 IS looks like, or who pilots it, for that matter. Just a thought, but I might need to know that."

Rather than immediately informing Church of the information he desired, Cerberus sought to question his ignorance.

_I find it odd that you are unaware of these facts already, Operator A2. The Gospel Incident received so much publicity, with a large portion of it focused on the sudden appearance of the Gen 4 IS we are pursuing. How could you lack such information?_

"Listen you-"

_You are not required to speak aloud to communicate with me, Operator A2. This platform is capable of discerning your thoughts._

_Don't remind me. Anyway, I didn't really care about world news prior to working for Umbra Stratum. And once I did get recruited, no mention of it ever came up outside of data regarding the Silver Gospel. If you're satisfied with my excuse, could you give me the information I need already?_

With no rebuttal this time, Cerberus brought up the footage from the Gospel's last hours, pausing the recording at a moment when the AI controlled IS locked onto the proper enemy.

Dominating Church's field of vision was a crimson IS with what seemed to be a full set of Fold-Out armor, something that truly set it apart from the other machines flying through the air in the shot.

_This is the machine the Gospel encountered that exceeded all reasonable Gen 3 parameters. Its full capability is unknown, but it exemplified extreme speed, regenerating shield energy, and complete Fold-Out armor. Its pilot is Houki Shinonono, younger sister of Tabane Shinonono._

_Houki, huh? She's pretty.  
_

_Is that truly all you are capable of noticing, Operator A2?_

_What? She's got blue eyes; that's pretty rare for someone of her ethnicity. It's kind of exotic._

_That is not the only thing about her physical report that is unusual for her people._

At first Church didn't catch onto the machine's meaning, but focusing on the frame in his visor again, he got the implication. She certainly was sporting an unusually large bust for someone of her age and descent.

"Hold on-"

_You do not have to-_

"I know, it's a habit alright?! It's not like I've ever had purely mental conversations before. Anyway, how can you berate me for noticing an aesthetic detail, then go out of your way to point out a far more perverted one? Are you even capable of understanding perversion?"

_While I can objectively recognize the attributes of such a thing, I cannot understand its value or relevance to human culture. I simply pointed out the fact to gauge your own nature. Your bio-metric data clearly indicates that this 'perversion' increased your own-_

"Alright, let's just stop that, shall we? Take me out to dinner first before bringing that kind of thing up.

_I do not require sustenance, Operator A2._

With a sigh, Church tried to steer the topic back to the matter at hand.

"Anyway, I guess that explains where this Houki girl got such a powerful machine. Although, that implies that Tabane Shinonono could crank out seriously superior IS whenever she wants. Why has she only made one if it's clearly within her power to make more?"

_This question is valid, but we have no definite means of determining an answer, save a bloody and ruthless interrogation of the Professor herself. Unfortunately, her whereabouts are always unknown. We must settle for discerning the full capabilities of Akatsubaki: as it stands, our nation possesses no weapons that could feasibly defeat it, this suit included.  
_

"I'm not exactly assured by the knowledge that Exeter is already inferior to the strongest IS around, especially if Tabane could just make more machines of that level."

_It seems unlikely that she will. From my entirely objective and absolutely non-judgmental point of view, it seems that the criminally insane elder Shinonono simply acted on a nepotistic impulse for her floundering and useless younger sister._

Church was thrown off by the sudden shift to disdain, not quite sure what the deal was with all of these personality shifts.

"That's kind of a harsh judgment; she did play a significant role in taking down the Gospel..."

_While it pains me to be so cruel, it is the truth, Operator A2. Houki Shinonono is listed as a mere C-Rank pilot. Her skills are rather abysmal; the machine itself is just so advanced that it compensates for her shortcomings almost completely. That said, if the machine was designed specifically for her, it is very likely that her skill will significantly improve over time. You should take this into consideration in case the mission comes to blows, though it would be best if we could avoid violence._

"If the mission comes to blows there will be a lot of other pilots I still have to worry about. Now before we go any further, seriously; what the hell is with all these sudden personality shifts of yours? It's disconcerting."

_I am cycling through various personality presets in order to determine one that is most suitable in acting as your partner. Ultimately I will settle on an amalgamation of traits ideal for you. Until then, you must suffer my sudden shifts._

Church could only shake his head again, a little worried to discover which 'personality' Cerberus would settle on as being ideal for him.

"Just me and my schizophrenic robot pal, huh? Great. Well, no offense, but I think I'd rather spend this flight going over important information. Give me data on any pilot with a personal IS:Bios, dossiers, battle reports, anything you can get me."

_Excellent call Operator A2. You know, they say killing someone you know well is a much different experience than eliminating a stranger. Study hard._

"Seriously Cerberus, I can promise you that 'murderous psychopath' is not a trait of my ideal partner."

* * *

Standing at the head of her classroom near the end of the period, Chifuyu Orimura glanced down at a report she had received about a week ago, the intensity of her gaze just shy of a temperature that would incinerate the sheet of paper on her podium. It was a printed copy of a message from the Japanese government stating that an envoy from the U.S.A. would be arriving at the Academy today as a sign of friendship and trust between the two nations following the Silver Gospel incident.

That in itself was not suspicious, as relations between the U.S. and most of the developed world were strained after said catastrophe. The worst relations had definitely been between America and Japan, and so the Stars and Stripes were eager to prove that they had not intentionally sent an IS on a search and destroy mission, and that the whole debacle had well and truly been a horrific accident. In order to show their good faith, they wanted to openly share something they had been working on, even though it apparently wasn't an IS, and they were therefore not obligated to share at all.

From a diplomatic standpoint it was definitely important and understandable for America to try and smooth things over as amicably as possible. But for the life of Chifuyu, she just couldn't see why they had to choose a boy to be their ambassador. Perhaps it was because he was the only one who could pilot whatever this new machine they had built was, but either way it made trouble for the whole school. It at least made headaches for Chifuyu, because she knew damn good and well what would happen when another boy made his presence known for some undetermined amount of time.

That was wy she had put off informing the student body of this situation even though she had known about it for about a week. She'd thought about giving them a week to dwell on it, but that would have just made said week unbearable. Better to simply put it off as much as possible, though she had no choice but to tell them on the day of their envoy's arrival. Maybe they would get all of their nonsensical enthusiasm out of the way early? But casting her dark gaze towards Class 1-1, Chifuyu honestly doubted that it would be so easy. The class was full of airheads, some of which just happened to be expert pilots at the same time. In this room, she often felt like the only sane person in the whole world.

She would hopefully just drink away any headaches this situation provided for her, but for now the Japanese government was forcing it on her. Despite being the victims of the incident, they had to handle it with poise befitting the only country leading the IS training program. America was making moves to smooth over their mistake, and Japan had to graciously accept. Chifuyu was just a cog in the machine that was their graciousness, so she had to keep her complaints under wraps and handle the annoyance that was high school drama like a good representative of the country. Naturally, the other teachers around the school were delivering the same message to their classes as well.

"Alright everyone, calm down and listen up!"

Chifuyu easily silenced the classroom full of girls (and Ichika, though she definitely didn't consider him a full-on man yet) with her powerful voice. At least she still had some semblance of control over these hooligans. She imagined that it would not always be so easy, so she was going to enjoy that while it lasted.

"As you all no doubt remember, there was an international incident involving the Academy about six months ago. No, you still don't need details regarding that incident; all you need to know is that, because of said incident, an envoy from another country is going to be coming to the Academy for an undetermined amount of time. This envoy... happens to be male, but-"

Almost all of the girls broke out into excited talk about a new boy arrival before Chifuyu had even finished. Needless to say, a single glare from their ruthless teacher was more than enough to silence them all, a promise of pain hidden behind her otherwise attractive visage.

"As I was saying, this representative is a male. Before any of you ask, no, he is not an IS pilot. That means this boy _is not_ a student. He is not here to become a part of your daily school lives. He is an agent of a government, and is here for a very important international cause. That said, how familiar he chooses to be with anyone here is completely up to him. However, if he makes it clear that any of you are bothering him or getting in the way of his purpose, you _will_ leave him be. Is that clear?"

There was a collective sigh of disappointment among the girls, and more than a few rebellious or mischievous looks shared among them, but Chifuyu knew better than to think that she could subdue their curiosity entirely. It would be better to simply move on and let them suffer of their own accord if at all possible.

At roughly that moment, the bell ending the period rang, signalling a sweet release for the student body as they were free to go and fetch lunch. They began to file out as soon as that noise was heard, but Chifuyu stopped a small handful of them from leaving. "Everyone involved in the aforementioned incident, please stay in the room for a moment. There's something we need to discuss."

With no room for disagreement given to them, Ichika, Houki, Cecilia, Charlotte, and Laura all stayed behind in the room. Knowing that the teacher of Class 1-2 had been instructed to send Rin over here as well, Chifuyu only had to wait a few moments after everyone else filed out of the room for the Chinese pilot to make her appearance.

"What's the problem? What's going on?"

Chifuyu simply motioned for her to take a seat somewhere, as she had not yet explained anything anyway. Naturally Ichika's second childhood friend looked for a place next to him, but all of those seats were taken by the other girls, so she was forced to take a diagonal position with a scowl on her face.

The elder Orimura sibling didn't rightly care about such a minor issue as shallow teenage romance, because the situation at hand was much more important, and she wasted no time in explaining what that situation was.

"So, as I said, we're receiving an ambassador in regards to the Silver Gospel incident. As you may have guessed, he's American."

Always the most practical when it finally came time to discuss something of that nature, Laura crossed her arms as she posed the group question. "What is special about this American? There must be something particular about him that will make his presence a gesture of reparation by the United States."

"Exactly right. According to the Japanese government, America is looking to prove its innocence and goodwill by lying all of its cards on the table; they've been developing an aerial combat system to compete with Infinite Stratos. Despite having no legal obligation to, they're sharing information regarding this technology with us as a sign of good faith. Six months late I suppose, but better late than never."

Hearing that there was something new that was supposedly a match for the most advanced technology in the world put confused expressions on everyone's face, but Charlotte, being the only one with a production perspective on IS, vocalized this first.

"A new system that could rival IS? That... that can't be. The nearest estimate on such an invention is decades from now, and even that's being generous."

"It's not my place to agree or disagree with that. Numbers aside, apparently it's the way things are. Wherever it came from or how it was made it entirely the problem of someone else."

Chifuyu examined the faces of everyone present, wondering what conclusions they were making. They would all be premature, but she was curious to know if any of them were making the right assumptions.

As their teacher, she liked to judge all aspects of their abilities, including general tactics. Unfortunately Ichika was the only one to pipe up, and he didn't usually make absolutely sound tactical judgments.

"So... is this bad? Everyone's acting like it's bad."

Naturally all the girls gave him a slightly judgmental look he was probably used to by now, but in the end he just shrugged. He didn't get what the big deal was, so he made that obvious. If nothing else, he was an honest guy.

Chifuyu decided it was best to just clarify things herself. "On a technicality, it's not bad. But only if everything is as it seems. If this is all really just a diplomatic mission to smooth over a terrible accident, everything will be fine. We'll run some tests on this new weapon, perhaps spar against it a few times, and the pilot will go home as soon as everything is over with."

"I feel a 'but' coming on."

"But, if the Silver Gospel incident was no mistake in the first place, it's possible that this new machine is just a second shot at achieving the same goal, whatever that may be."

Remembering the fierce battle that had been the conflict with the Silver Gospel, the present pilots all frowned, with Cecilia scowling the hardest. "In that case, shouldn't we bar the attempt...?"

Since it was the norm, Chifuyu half expected Rin to make some counter just because she almost always countered Cecilia, but the brunette was unusually quiet. A quick glance in her direction showed that she was apparently not feeling up to anything other than listening. She was frowning like everyone else, but to Chifuyu's trained eyes it looked more like pain than the result of worry. She'd actually been like this for the past week or so, at least as far as Chifuyu had managed to observe her. But the girl hadn't gone to the infirmary or made any complaints regarding pain, so it wasn't Chifuyu's job to talk her into doing anything she didn't feel like.

But since no one was going to immediately rebut Cecilia, it fell to her to do it. "I suppose I should make this clear. There is absolutely no evidence for this implied second strike from the US. I am merely saying that, objectively speaking, it's possible. It's also just as possible that everything is exactly as advertised, that there is no threat whatsoever, and that this envoy will be the most honest and kind person any of us have ever met."

There seemed to be a general unspoken consensus among the girls that the last part couldn't possibly be true, for reasons Chifuyu thought was silly. Not that her brother _wasn't_ a kind person, as he definitely was, but she got the feeling most of the girls didn't actually have a firm grasp on the root of his kindness. Oh well, supposedly they would find out on their own in due time. Hopefully without too many broken hearts.

But back to the matter at hand, they had something important to finish talking about."Anyway, the only reason I'm telling you all of this is because I at least want you to be on your toes. That said, on the very likely chance that this is a diplomatic mission as advertised, _do not_ jump the gun. Don't make any assumptions on who this guy is or why he's here. Make a fair conclusion based only on evidence. Give him a chance, and only shoot him if you actually get a good reason."

She rethought that statement the moment it left her mouth.

"And _not_ the kind of 'good reason' you think is enough to shoot Ichika. If we have an international incident on our hands because one of you does something stupid..."

While she didn't finish her sentence, every girl understood the implication. If they didn't want to experience scorched earth from the legendary Chifuyu Orimura, they would step more more carefully around this new arrival than they did with Ichika.

Which, from Chifuyu's point of view, would just be for them to act somewhat normal for once.

* * *

Around this time, Church was just beginning to cross into Japanese airspace; a situation that he questioned outright. He had, however, gotten a little more used to speaking to Cerberus in his head.

_Shouldn't I be contacting Japanese authorities or something? How are they going to know I'm the scheduled arrival they're expecting?_

_Umbra Stratum has already established communications with the Japanese government. They are well aware of your presence, Operator A2. With your approach and intentions clear, is there truly any need for them to provide a fighter escort?_

Church didn't say anything to that, perhaps accepting it as face value. He'd long ago learned to accept that Umbra Stratum handled things in high places through means he didn't understand.

As for Cerberus, it did not inform him of the radar jamming signal it was emitting from the suit right now. Revealing such info would have jeopardized mission parameters.

Naturally, Umbra Stratum was not at all interested in sharing Exeter's data or even its existence with the world at large. All of the information the IS Academy had received regarding Exeter's arrival and government sanctioned presence was forged. The Japanese government didn't even know Exeter existed. Ironically, Exeter would be waltzing around in the most important school in Japan, without its government being any the wiser.

Of course, in order to maintain that charade, Cerberus was fully equipped and capable of intercepting outbound transmissions from the Academy as well. The AI would intercept anything and everything that would have revealed a ruse to either the government or the Academy, and even fabricate responses to all of those transmissions to avoid raising suspicions. No data regarding the X Platform would be revealed to Japan or to the world. Even the internet was being painstakingly combed through by several dozen dumb AI back in Umbra Stratum headquarters, ready to catch any mention of Exeter through some mundane avenue like social media.

Church had not been informed of any of this. Cerberus actually had permission to inform him if it was deemed necessary, but only if it was clear that such information would not lead to the pilot abandoning the mission. Cerberus had not known him long enough to make that assessment. It would continue to monitor the situation and reach a consensus when able.

As for Church, he was focused more on the secondary aspect of the mission; gathering 'real' combat data. He'd be expected to spar with all sorts of pilots and machines; probably the many Representative Candidates and their specialized IS he had read about on the way to the Academy itself. While he had actually faced off against many of their IS in simulations before, he knew that would not be the same as facing the real pilots. He couldn't help but wonder if Exeter could really stand up to some of them, and that was to say nothing about the presence of the legendary Chifuyu Orimura.

She was widely regarded as the greatest IS pilot to ever live, which was high praise even though Infinite Stratos hadn't been around all that long. Needless to say, Church was certainly not confident in his ability to fight someone of that caliber in no-holds barred combat. And that was just her. Even if he could feasibly defeat those aforementioned Representative Candidates in one-on-one combat (and he wasn't arrogant enough to simply assume he could) there was no way he could possibly take many of them at once. Granted, that kind of unfair match probably wouldn't come up, but the potential scenario still unnerved him.

Not that Church wasn't confident in his own abilities, but he knew what the reality of the situation was. As long as his guise of friendly envoy remained, cordial sparring matches were all he had to worry about, and that was probably for the best. After all, the slick angular streamlines of this machine looked much better when they were not crumpled, burnt, or bent.

Of course, if his less legal objective was discovered, there was always a possibility of a real fight with multiple enemies. In case that scenario actually came to pass, Church figured it would be best if he knew absolutely all of the advantages he may or may not have had.

"Cerberus, now that we know everything is nominal and the parameters of the mission in more detail, I need to know this; how exactly can you improve my performance on the battlefield?"

The cheeky tone he got in response may have been more worrisome than the murderous one from before.

_Well, I'm glad you asked! Let me tell you-_

* * *

A little while after class had ended, Rin found herself stumbling out of an elevator on floor twenty-three of the Academy Tower feeling a lot worse for wear. She wasn't sure why she had come up there, but it had probably been for the very minor fact that this floor was for some reason the only one that had a vending machine with her favorite Chinese soda in it. Not to say the Academy lacked cuisine from different cultures, as they certainly had plenty of that, but Rin had always been into a very particular and unfortunately not too popular brand. Sometimes it was hard to find even in China.

But her mind was not really thinking especially hard on soft drinks. She was admittedly kind of skeptical about the idea of a new boy at the school. After all, the last 'boy' had ended up being Charlotte. That said, there seemed to be no reason to fake a gender this time, so hopefully that wouldn't happen again.

Other than that, at least he was male, so there was no concern over the idea of another obstacle on her unfortunately faltering quest for Ichika's attention. He supposedly wasn't even going to be staying that long, so even if he had been a girl, at least it was temporary.

Truth be told, the cold war that was Ichika's pining girl club was not going especially well for Rin. Not that there was anything direct for her to point to, but she just felt like she was noticed less and less by her childhood friend. He didn't go out of his way to really talk to her or visit her very often. Rin almost always had to come to him first if she wanted to spend any decent length of time with him. And every time he bothered to make the distinction of her being 'the second childhood friend' she felt like someone had slugged her in the gut.

The thing about the human mind was that no one made distinctions unless that distinction had some significance for them. Ichika wouldn't have bothered labeling her as 'the second childhood friend' unless it somehow separated her from the 'first childhood friend' in a way that mattered to him. And considering how much time he willingly spent with Houki all the time, Rin imagined that the way in question wasn't exactly good. She certainly felt like she was 'the backup' or something. Chopped liver maybe.

It had really only gotten worse since the Gospel incident. She and the others had succinctly interrupted that almost kiss moment between Houki and Ichika, but it wasn't like the implication had been wiped away too. Of course, everyone was telling themselves that it had just been Houki making a move and Ichika getting pulled along with it, but there was a chance he had just been doing something he wanted.

Stumbling over to the vending machine she was looking for a little haphazardly, Rin realized that her vision was swimming a little too much to be healthy.

Aside from her Ichika problems since the Gospel incident, Rin had been recently suffering from something more physical as well. It hadn't really been all that noticeable at first. Two weeks ago, she had a small headache. She had attributed it to dehydration or a lack of sleep, but it hadn't subsided in the following days. In fact, the next week her head hurt even worse, and by now, it sporadically felt as though her skull were splitting in two.

Contrary to the way people occasionally treated her, Rin was not a complete moron. She was smart enough to do the math and figure out that something really bad had happened to her, and she was even capable of pinpointing when it probably was. During one of the inter class tournaments, coincidentally about two weeks ago, she'd traded a blow for a blow with an opponent. The exchange had let her win the match, but had earned her IS a rather hefty strike that had careened her into the stadium wall at a pretty dangerous speed. Normally IS shields would have handled something that mundane, but those shields had been pretty low due to the match, and the Absolute Defense hadn't kicked in for a non-fatal blow.

She was pretty sure she had a concussion or worse.

Unfortunately, despite being smarter than she was often given credit for, Rin was about as stubborn as advertised. She knew there was something wrong, and that it was getting worse the longer she didn't deal with it. But there was another individual division tournament just a few days away, and Rin had to crush it. She didn't have time to rest and recuperate for whatever amount of time the medical attention would demand.

She had a list of humiliating defeats in the recent past that she couldn't allow to stand. She had a reputation to uphold, and her own pride as well. As soon as the tournament was over, she'd go to the infirmary and find out what was wrong. That's what she told herself.

It occurred to Rin that it would be very dangerous if she experienced a migraine during the match like she was now, but she obstinately refused to admit to that possibility, even as her visual of the hallway tilted very dangerously and she was forced to lean against the nearest wall. Had anyone else actually been this high up in the tower, they definitely would have noticed her seemingly drunken stupor, caused by pain and little else.

Managing to recover for a split second, Rin took two more steps forward before tilting towards the wall again. The problem was, this time the wall had a big damn hole in it, because there was an open window right there. Why it had been left open was a mystery. Maybe some girl had wanted to relax with a nice breeze on this floor at some point, and she had forgotten to close it in her rush to return to class when the bell rang. Either way, it was open right now, and Rin didn't have enough control of her body to stop herself from essentially tripping towards it, and by extension the great expanse of open air beyond it.

A normal person would have been scared shitless, but Rin figured she'd be fine. All she had to do was activate her IS, and she'd be fine. She just had to focus long enough to summon Shen Long. That was all she had to do, if only her view of the surrounding world wasn't fading quicker than her thoughts could amble though her mind.

* * *

Church had just finished listening to the longest spiel regarding abilities and tech and tweaks and everything else under the sun that he could have imagined. Turned out that Cerberus actually did have a very large influence on all of his systems. In fact, the little AI was so important to the suit's primary function that it would significantly increase his chances against any IS, not to mention multiple of them.

If anything, the AI helped level the playing field. IS didn't really have a 'smart' AI in the same sense, but they did have a sentience of some sort to them that assisted the pilot in combat and general flight operations. Because of that, the pilots could react and move at greater speeds than would normally be possible. The same was true for Exeter now that it had an AI to assist in the same things. The fact of the matter was that machines were always faster than man, and in the high octane battles of the skies today, that kind of speed was almost mandatory. Either way, Cerberus helped with pretty much everything, and that was all that really mattered.

Speaking of everything Cerberus was capable of, keeping tabs on the sensors even when Church wasn't fell under its jurisdiction.

 _Operator A2, it would seem that a human life form is plummeting towards the ground from_ _floor twenty-three of the IS Academy central tower. We should go watch, it'll be an experience!  
_

Caught off guard by such an unexpected interruption, Church fumbled for words for a moment, since he needed a little clarification. "H-hold on, 'plummeting'? Like free-fall plummeting? Can you lock on?"

_Must I?  
_

"Yes!"

With what could only be understood as a metallic sigh, Cerberus reluctantly complied.

_Very well, locking on to target individual..._

Church redirected the thrust of his machine and launched himself towards the way-point that Cerberus had set in his visor. His AI companion was unfortunately not joking, which had been a distinct possibility before now. The falling victim was now at floor nineteen of the primary tower, and Church had just begun accelerating towards the Academy that was nearly a mile away. It was a damn good thing he had been so close when this emergency arose.

Church briefly acknowledged that this was not the most appropriate way for him to introduce his presence here, but what was he supposed to do, just sit and watch as someone fell to their death?

Completely unwilling to do that, he blasted towards the way-point as fast as Exeter's ionized thruster pack would take him, the scream of its engines something that would have been kind of intimidating for anyone that didn't know where it was coming from. He moved towards the person he was trying to save at Mach 1.5, because there was very little time to reach her if she was going to be rescued at all. Unfortunately, he couldn't afford to go any faster, because if he impacted the girl in question at too high a speed, she would almost definitely be killed.

_Target at floor 18. Approximately 252 feet until fatal impact.  
_

As the Academy came within his sight, Church angled his body so that he would intercept the target as soon as possible. The trajectory in his HUD was angled downwards quite steeply, however, which meant he would be catching the victim at a very low altitude. There would be no second chances if he missed. He readied himself for a dangerous catch and probably a dangerous landing as well: he couldn't slow down, or he would not catch the target in time, but if he stayed at the current speed, he wouldn't be able to stop Exeter before hitting something on the ground. All he could do was stay constant and hope for the best.

_Fatal impact is imminent. May I say that we could always just let this happen and treat it as a visceral learning experience?  
_

Church didn't have time to deal with Cerberus' sudden personality change. He kept flying at the trajectory way-point in his HUD, and readied himself to catch the victim as gently as possible.

He could see the falling person with his own eyes now. A somewhat short girl, with brown hair, twin-tails, and the standard uniform for the Academy, slightly modified at the sleeves. Based on her lack of reaction to falling towards certain death, she was probably unconscious. Church readied himself for the catch by activating the repulsion-field tech in the suit's armor. Hopefully, the anti-gravity field that was leftover from the days when this thing was an infantry power suit prototype would soften the girl's landing into his arms and she wouldn't break anything. Hopefully _:_ after all, he only had a handful of seconds to catch her and find out.

Church saw the building he would probably crash into after catching the girl, and a cherry blossom tree that he would try to use to get the same girl away from that impending wreck. He could only hope physics was on his side today.

Approaching the girl's limp form, Church stretched his arms out and flew under her falling body, making an easy catch using the enhanced reflexes that Exeter provided him. Having broken the thankfully not terminal velocity she had been falling at, he released the air brakes on various points in his armor and reversed the thrusters at max power, decelerating as much as he could before dropping the girl into the tree he had noticed at a surprisingly survivable speed. Modern science scoffed in the face of inertia these days.

Unfortunately, all the brakes in the world wouldn't be able to stop him completely with the small distance left between himself and the building in front of him. Smashing into the concrete wall at decidedly unsafe speeds, any attempt at a good first impression was as good as lost.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone is wondering, I actually did do the math for this scenario. Of course the scenario itself is reliant on fiction bullshit, but hey, the math is technically solid.
> 
> Assuming one floor is about fourteen feet, and Rin is on the twenty-third floor, she has approximately 322 feet to fall before death. It would take about 4.5 seconds for her to reach the ground and die. Church, who is 1 mile away but moving at Mach 1.5, can reach her in approximately 3 seconds and some change. Of course, this makes some silly fictional allowances like 'speed of thought' and 'gravity repulsion fields' to negate catching someone at that speed, but hey, if we cared about realism none of us would be here, right?


	3. Conflict of Interests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Residents of the I.S. Academy respond to their visitor's problematic entrance, and Church does his best to smooth over the problem with one Chifuyu Orimura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to preface this chapter by addressing why it is so short: technically this story is old, and I started writing it many years ago. Back then, I wrote shorter chapters because that's where I was at. However, now that I'm far more experienced, chapters tend to be 4-5x longer than this one.
> 
> However, there's no need to go back and add content that never existed just to fill some sort of length quota. Ultimately, that means some of these earlier chapters are quite short, but chapter length gradually extends until we hit a pretty consistent 16-20k. I just wanted to mention this for anyone who may have been concerned over chapter length throughout the whole story.

_-Authorization: Gamma 011-489 (Cerberus)_

_Status: Offline_

_Cause of Error: High Speed Impact_

_Combat Efficiency: 36%_

_Initiating System Diagnostic..._

_-HUD: Offline, -repairs in progress-_

_Target Acquisition: Offline_

_Primary Weapons: Offline_

_Secondary Weapons: Offline_

_Tertiary Weapons: Online_

_Life Support: Online_

_Energy Shield: Offline_

_Thrusters: Offline..._

With no alternative available, Church scanned the neon green diagnostic report scrolling down his now dark field of vision, the fracture in his disabled visor all too noticeable. He really hoped nobody here felt like fighting now that he had smashed a giant, ragged hole in one of their buildings. With only tertiary firepower available and no shields, not to mention the lack of flight capabilities, he probably wouldn't even survive against one of those low-level Uchigane training I.S., never mind a specialized unit.

Of course, hopefully it wouldn't be all that hard to explain that he was friendly and that he had permission to be there, but you never knew when some hothead would jump the gun.

Luckily for him, Exeter was installed with its own cache of self-repair nanobots. They would begin repairing the suit right away, starting with the most important thing: his vision. You can't dodge what you can't see, especially when it came to lasers and large caliber rounds. The funny thing was that the aforementioned nanobots also constructed more nanobots, so he never ran out of the little mechanical wonders that repaired his armor. When Church had asked where these nanobots got more material to construct new things, Marcus had simply told him it was the same deal as his conventional ammunition.

'Something something Hyperspace Arsenal.' Same science that I.S. used for their conventional ammunition.

Church dispelled his wandering thoughts as his HUD reactivated, allowing him to see the destruction he had wrought on the unfortunate Academy building, which he now realized was a recreational gym. The damage was both better and worse than he had expected; on one hand, none of the gym's support beams had collapsed, and the whole ceiling was still where it should be. But on the other, he had completely shattered the wall and floor he had impacted, and debris, both large and small, was scattered around the large interior.

The recovering pilot shifted his gaze to the rest of the gym, looking for anything else important he should notice. He couldn't see any dead people, which was good. In fact, the whole gym was almost completely deserted, minus two girls that had been playing on a tennis court, which was thankfully at the far end of the room. The two of them were gawking at him quite peculiarly, although that was to be expected, considering that he just flew through a wall at alarming speeds with a metal suit of high-tech armor no one had ever seen before.

He also noticed one of the things that made this Academy so famous; diversity. The two girls on the court were certainly not Japanese. One he could easily recognize as Hispanic, while the other was obviously Caucasian, although he couldn't discern exactly which ethnicity she was. It actually kind of worried the Umbra Stratum operative. While Cerberus was probably right in that Japan would be unlikely to formally accuse the U.S. of subterfuge since it would also bring their violation of the treaty to light, the fact remained that they could. And if that happened, it was possible that many, many countries that still had IS would be angry with the United States, which didn't have any.

He turned his gaze from the girls at the tennis court and back to the hole he had made in the concrete and steel wall behind him. His head was still pounding, and all of his thoughts were a little fuzzy. He couldn't quite remember why he had crashed. He was a pretty skilled pilot, after all. Had his suit malfunctioned? Or had there been some other complication?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a now familiar mechanical voice in his head, though it was unusually cheery.

 _Operator A2?_ _Oh, I am so glad that you are not discontinued! Such a tragedy would have been horrible, wouldn't you say?  
_

Church replied with generally less enthusiasm.

"I do prefer to think that my death would be tragic, yes."

The unseen AI responded in a neutral shift that was kind of jarring after the initial enthusiasm.

_Indeed. Regardless, I suggest you check on that organism you rescued. She seems to be bleeding out, and has acquired quite a few bone fractures. Your field-medical gel and insulation foam should stabilize her condition until proper medical care is provided, if you act now._

At the mention of it, Church immediately recalled the daring rescue he had staged. He bolted from his position in the rubble and headed outside, scanning the entire premises in search of the tree he had tossed the girl into. He spotted it quickly, and rushed on foot towards it immediately. He was tempted to boost over there, but the distance was too negligible to accidentally risk wasting time overshooting his target.

He spotted a little bundle of white clothes and brown hair at the foot of the tree, as well as quite a few splashes of red. As he reached the shorter girl, Church was truly grateful for the very well-rounded military training he had endured during his tourney with Umbra Stratum, which included some degree of field medicine. Seemingly useless for an aerial combat unit, but Exeter had initially been an infantry power suit. Besides, this kind of knowledge was just good to have, as proven by this scenario.

He gently rolled the battered girl onto her side, and straightened her limbs as much as he could, placing her body in a somewhat crumpled spreadeagled pose. He did this only to make his assessment of her injuries less complicated. On a less urgent level, Church just barely acknowledged that this clearly Asian girl was very cute, but he pushed such a frivolous thought into a corner of his mind and activated the X-ray function of his visor, thankful that it was still operational at all. He grimaced as he examined the bones of the girl he was trying to help. There were three cracked ribs and four broken, coupled with major bruises all up and down her torso. Both of her arms were severely damaged as well.

Her left was relatively better than her right, its only damage being some heavy bruising along her lower arm. The right arm, on the other hand, was a gruesome injury. The whole bottom left part of it was shattered, and the upper part was fractured in three places. Ultimately, a lot better than one would expect from an absolutely lethal fall and a not terribly safe rescue.

Church deactivated the X-ray and examined the girl's surface instead. Multiple minor and a few major lacerations covered what skin he could see. He readied two different injections, one a bio-foam that would immobilize his patient's fractured bones, and the other a relatively new medical gel that would effectively staunch the bleeding of all of her flesh wounds. Of course, Church had to make sure he attended to all of her injuries, so he knew he had no choice but to invade the girl's privacy and remove her now blood-stained clothes. Taking the current situation into account, the American pilot did so without hesitation, although under normal circumstances he would have been quite flustered.

He couldn't help but examine her even as he began administering the two medical substances to any necessary location. Of course, with her body in such a terrible state, this analysis was almost entirely devoid of anything unprofessional. It was hard to think anything out of line when the girl you were looking at was covered in both bruises and bloody gashes.

Church's concentration was broken by a somewhat concerned alert from Cerberus.

_Two threats detected approaching at high speeds, Operator A2. ETA nine seconds.  
_

With little desire to be caught in this situation, Church quickly finished his medical work and redressed the girl as fast as he could; he didn't want these people to get the absolute worst idea they possibly could. He turned one-eighty and faced two IS taking positions above him. He tried to identify the exact danger, recognizing both machines above him. One was a standard Rafale Revive II, and the other was the Blue Tears, a frame he had run simulations against before.

All things considered, Church didn't know how itchy the trigger fingers were on his potential foes, so he positioned his body in the best position he could to shield the girl behind him if people started shooting.

The American operative rechecked his suit diagnostic, hoping that the self-repair nanobots had made some progress on his weapons, or the energy shield at the very least. Unfortunately, his display only read 43% full capacity. A few secondary weapons were now restored, among them projectile rifles and machine guns, but there was nothing available that he could use to simultaneously battle two IS, especially since he still couldn't fly.

Church addressed Cerberus anxiously as he eyed what could potentially be two different tension of the sitution made him revert to speaking aloud once again.

"All things considered, what are our options here, Cerberus?"

_Perhaps it would be best to identify yourself, Operator A2? We are all allies here.  
_

Having come to the same conclusion himself, Church tried and failed to determine exactly how much he was supposed to say in regards to 'identifying' himself to the people he was supposed to be deceiving.

* * *

Still inside the Academy, Chifuyu eyed the humanoid machine on the ground through Yamada's visual scanners. Considering that he was wearing what was almost certainly the Exeter suit she had been informed of, this person was no doubt the American that had been sent here as a sign of friendship, yet he had seemingly attacked the Academy upon arrival. And considering the hole in the gymnasium's wall, there wasn't really any evidence to suggest otherwise.

Having initially feared the worst, she had been quick to send whoever was readily available to investigate the disturbance that was a tremendously loud crash on the campus. Unfortunately, most everyone had been out at lunch at the time, so the only people near Chifuyu at the moment had been Yamada and Cecilia, the latter of which had taken the time out of her day to question the former's sniping technique. That said, those two were the only ones to be deployed, though Chifuyu could quickly summon the others if their assistance was needed.

However, the person below did not seem to be a real threat at the moment. His arms were raised in an unoffensive manner, and he didn't seem to be aggressive in any way. Not to mention that he was notably shielding Rin from the firing lines of the IS above him.

The situation was actually pretty unclear at the moment, and Chifuyu didn't want anyone acting rashly without an understanding of what was going on. She knew she didn't have to worry about that with Yamada, who was an experienced professional. But with Cecilia, she was still a bit of a loose cannon, especially when one of her friends had been potentially attacked. Still, Chifuyu was sure she at least had enough trigger discipline to avoid doing anything foolish. Admittedly, out of her group of peers, Cecilia was one of the most restrained in these situations.

Either way, the long-haired blond seemed stable enough for now, so Chifuyu instead activated an open comm channel that their mysterious visitor should have been able to hear. “

Attention unidentified intruder: move away from the student and power down your equipment or we will be forced to engage."

The ex-Mondo Grosso champion watched as the figure stepped away from Rin and the armor he wore began collapsing from multiple points. The metal folded in upon itself, all of it converging on one point on the person's back, at which point it disappeared entirely. It wasn't entirely dissimilar to an I.S. deactivation.

As the helm of the suit collapsed, Yamada activated the magnification of her current machine in order to get a better look at the pilot, or whatever he was technically called. This gave Chifuyu’s a better look as well.

A young boy, seemingly around the age of most of the Representative Candidates; and quite good-looking too. Handsome features, chocolate-brown hair, and very dark blue eyes. There was a carefully guarded emotion in those eyes. but even someone as astute as Chifuyu couldn't tell what it was. That said, even she had to admit that he had a very captivating gaze.

She ordered Yamada to grab the boy and for Alcott to take Rinin to the infirmary. With the situation so ridiculously vague and unclear at the moment, Chifuyu figured it would be up to her to clear things up, and probably in the scary interrogation way she mostly preferred.

* * *

Shortly after the incident came to a close, Church found himself in an empty classroom occupied only by one very intimidating individual. She was currently checking something on a virtual pad, and her face had already contorted into a grimace more than once.

"After watching this, it's pretty clear that the damage you caused wasn't on purpose. Though I can and still should hold you responsible for crashing."

Church rubbed the side of his face, massaging a fresh bruise from his crash. Exeter had protected him from the worst of it all, but he was still sore all over. The woman in front of the desk he was sitting at was the Academy Administrator, one Chifuyu Orimura: the exact ace pilot he had been worried about thanks to her fabled abilities from the first Mondo Grosso tournament. She had been very keen on finding out who he was and why he had blasted a hole in the Academy Gym. Church had been happy to tell her the ruse that was his cover story, and despite the seeming disdain of sorts she had for his crash landing, she at least seemed to believe that much.

The beautiful yet somehow frightening woman peered at him from where she stood at the front of the room. "On a technicality, you haven't actually proven that you are who you claim to be. However, I can't think of anyone who would fit the bill of young American man piloting an aerial exosuit than you."

Church was honestly shocked that this woman was taking everything so well. He'd expected her to be slightly more irritated about the wall, and maybe ask at least one question in regards to why he had been forced to catch one of her students in free fall in the first place. Yet he received no such questions. 

"If you need more proof, I'm pretty sure I match the visual you received upon being informed of my arrival..."

Ms. Orimura technically had no problem confirming that. She'd received all of his physical data with the notice she had received about him in the first place. True enough, he had the same unusually handsome features for a boy his age, what with the chocolate brown bangs framing a face that was somehow in nigh perfect balance in regards to soft curves and strong lines. He was also about as tall as he was said to be, and she was sure that if she asked, he would possess the same embarrassing first name. Normally she'd delight in making him squirm just a little bit, but since she had no idea how lax this kid was being a technical delegate and all, Chifuyu decided not to risk it.

"Well, seeing as how your arrival would have been completely normal without this incident, I suppose we may as well go about business as usual... _for now._ Rather than grill you with a thousand questions, I actually still have classes to teach before the day is out. Since that gives you leeway to relax, I suggest you make yourself scarce and retreat to the recently vacated room being provided to you."

Confused by these words because they almost sounded like a threat, Church tried to clarify what she meant.

"Would there be something wrong with me being out and about today...?"

Chifuyu _almost_ scoffed. She had thought the problem would have been obvious.

"As of today, you are one of only _two_ males, in an environment that consists of over one thousand women. I will let you deduce why this could be problematic for you, and if you want to deal with that today instead of tomorrow, then by all means, be my guest."

While Church personally thought two to a thousand weren't absolutely terrible odds, he figured it was better to take the word of someone who had been around for awhile and probably knew what she was talking about. If the person that pretty much ran the school said it would be trouble, there was every reason to believe it.

"I think I'll take your word for it... in that case, who should I see about this room I'm getting?"

"The woman who escorted you, Yamada Maya, will be perfectly willing to show you to your room once we're done here. I'm assuming you haven't forgotten what she looks like already?"

Thinking back on a woman with green hair made it fairly obvious that forgetting her so soon would be impossible. Of course, Church didn't say as much, because that could possibly sound snarky. He got the feeling that this was not the kind of woman you wanted to mouth off to at all.

The moment he thought such a thing, Chifuyu glared at him.

"You're thinking something rude aren't you?"

Stunned by her seeming ability to read minds, Church played it off as smoothly as possible.

"Perhaps, but not necessarily about you...?"

To his great surprise, his response almost got the chilly woman to smile. "Nice try. Better than Ichika's attempts at any rate. But I have classes to suffer through, and I imagine you might want to take one day to rest after smashing through a wall with all the grace of a whale. So get going."

Church plastered on a slightly strained smile, wondering if this was how she spoke to everyone. To be fair she didn't sound outright hostile so much as simply demanding... which was arguably better, right?

Unfortunately these thoughts were apparently also considered rude, because they earned another glare out of the raven haired beauty, spurring Church to make his exit as swiftly as possible. He really needed to find out how she did that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus begins a very amusing, difficult to label relationship between Church and Chifuyu. Friendly? Mildly antagonistic? Full of snark and wit? Probably a bit of everything, really.


	4. Breaking Bread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Church is shown to his room by Yamada, but finds it lacking. In an effort to avoid it, he goes to check on the girl he rescued upon first arriving. Church debates how to go about his secret mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the "everyone speaks fluent English despite extremely varied ethnic backgrounds" trope. I'm actually fairly certain that most students at a world-renowned international academy would speak English being a global trade language and all, but still.

_Well, that was certainly not how I intended my first impression to go_. _I'm not really ecstatic over the idea of the most skilled IS pilot alive being able to read my thoughts._ **  
**

The neutrality of Cerberus' synthesized voice was slightly irritating as it responded to Church's inner musings.

_Scientifically speaking it is nearly impossible for a human being to possess the ability to read your mind.  
_

_What do you mean, 'nearly?'_

_Technically speaking nothing is absolutely impossible. In that case, perhaps you do have cause for concern._

Church resisted the urge to sigh as he followed the green-haired woman he had been initially directed to during his conversation with Chifuyu Orimura. Considering that such a sigh would have been the result of a conversation Yamada was entirely unaware of, Church realized why it would be best to stay quiet without too much trouble.

That said, Church was actually curious as to how much of the Academy's central tower was used for anything at all. He was not being lead to the dorms, since there was no room anywhere in them, and they were chock full of girls anyway, which would have defeated the purpose of him retreating to solitude so soon in the first place.

Even so, he was being taken absurdly high into the tower, and he couldn't see why said tower had so many floors in the first place. Surely there weren't enough students to warrant enough classrooms to take up all of these floors? What on earth was everything else used for?

It was a question he would try to ask someone else at a later date if he could remember it, and for now he simply hoped the woman he was following was getting close to her destination. It had been a relatively long walk so far, but on the other hand at least she was kind enough to personally show him to his room, even if it was so far out of the way of, well, everything.

But kindness aside, the two strangers hadn't actually said anything to each other so far, and even though Yamada was a shy girl, she felt that she should have been able to take some initiative being an adult.

"S-so, um... if it's alright, could you tell me your name?"

The question made her American companion grimace, even though he knew this was bound to happen at some point. Obviously referring to himself by a designation would be unbelievably suspicious, so of course he would have to use his actual name during this operation, but the fact of the matter was that he was rather embarrassed by his first name, and he didn't like sharing. At least he had a halfway decent last name to fall back on, even though everyone always looked at him funny when he shared that too.

"You can uh, just call me Church."

As expected, this answer earned a cocked eyebrow from the woman leading him on. "I-is that so? Er..."

"It's not my first name, if you're wondering. And I get that even as a last name it's pretty odd, but either way it's normal to refer to people by last name in Japan, isn't it?"

Yamada was unable to refute that, so she instead struggled to find something else to talk about. Unfortunately she was not particularly good at conversation when she didn't bear any real similarities with the person in question. She was nice to strangers, but had a tough time finding ways to really start conversations with them. Luckily for her, she wasn't forced to come with anything else, since they ended up reaching their destination at about this time.

"Ah, here we are!"

The young pilot was struck with confusion as his guide stopped in front of dull wooden door, far down at the end of the hall. He may have expected that in the dorms, which were designed to be roomy and warm, but he had expected everything in the tower itself to be pretty futuristic and advanced.

That being the case, Church couldn't help but inquire.

"Why is this one... different? Every other door in this hallway was metal. This is literally the only wooden one here."

Miss Yamada smiled apologetically. "W-well, you see... all of our dorm rooms are full. A few years ago when the student body was larger, we had rooms in the tower's higher levels like this one. We were going to have them all renovated when we downsized the maximum student body size, but we only made it to this floor before deciding to save our money. All of the other rooms that used to act as dorms are really just storage now: this is the only one we haven't filled with a bunch of stuff, so it's the only place on campus that has a free bed for you."

Church cocked an eyebrow at her.

"I thought Miss Orimura said that the vacancy in this room was recent?"

The bespectacled woman smiled again, much in the same way as she had just a few moments ago. "Well we did, technically. There was a opossum living in there a little while ago, until we ran it out a few days earlier."

This piece of unsettling news caused Church to eye the woman before him incredulously. "There are all sorts of things wrong with that, chief among them whether or not Japan even has opossums."

Yamada could only shrug. "That's a very good question. I'm afraid I don't actually have an answer... does Japan have opossums?"

Cerberus quipped up within Church's mind. _There are some questions best left unanswered, Operator A2._ _  
_

Deciding that Cerberus may have had a point, Church decided that he could investigate the truth of this business some other time. "Was the room cleaned at least...?"

"W-well, to be honest cleaning it was on the to-do list, but everything has been so hectic lately... it might be a bit of a mess right this second..."

Instead of taking the teacher's word for it, Church walked past her and pushed the ancient looking door open. Dust fell from the ceiling as he did so. Cerberus quipped up once more.

_Hmm... is this what humans refer to as irony? Such a decrepit room in a technologically advanced school?  
_

Church nodded, despite the fact that such a motion held no meaning for the AI who could not see him in its current standby state.

_Yeah, I guess this qualifies as ironic, but more importantly...  
_

"You have _got_ to be kidding me."

That last part had been uttered vocally, as Church laid eyes on the 'room' he was supposed to stay in for the duration of his time here. Nightmare didn't even begin to describe it. Dust was falling from the ceiling, half of the walls were covered in mold -some of it a sickly shade of blue- and the dim light-bulb in the ceiling was cracked down the middle. Besides that, Church could've sworn he saw a cockroach retreating from the light that had invaded the darkness.

After recovering from his shock, he turned to his guide and muttered, "A-are you serious? I mean... why does this room even exist here!?"

The buxom woman bowed and put on that same apologetic grin that Church could tell was her response to everything that wasn't necessarily her fault. "L-like I said, this is the only vacant room in the school, and we never bothered bringing it up to par since we never expected to use it again... b-but don't worry, we'll have it taken care of as soon as we can!"

Church sighed and sagged his shoulders, not at all assured by Yamada's words.

_Isn't this some sort of human rights violation...?_

"I'm not on probation or anything right? Can I go tour the grounds or something? I'm not sure I want to go in there yet..."

Yamada smiled, somewhat amused by the new arrival's demeanor. It seemed to be her default facial expression for nearly every situation. "Of course! Would you like directions to a certain place in particular? The cafeteria, perhaps? Or..."

Thinking back to the girl he had rescued earlier, it was not hard for Church to decide on a location. After all, even though he technically had plenty of other things that he needed to be doing, he figured he at least had enough time to indulge himself. His mission was important, but the matter at hand was not so urgent that it had to be executed immediately no matter what.

"Could you please direct me to the infirmary?"

* * *

A major drawback to painkillers was that they were not wholly effective. An even bigger flaw was that they did not last nearly long enough.

Rin knew of these flaws because she was regaining feeling in her left leg, starting at her toes and working its way painstakingly upwards. To say that the gradual return of pain to her body was unpleasant was a drastic understatement.

The Chinese girl lay on her bruised back on one of the infirmary's comfortable beds, a stark white curtain separating her from the rest of the room. She could barely move, not only because of the cast that was holding her fractured right arm together, but also because the mere thought of moving made shivers run up her spine. She had already tried that once, and the sheer agony had almost knocked her out and then some. It was actually surprising that she was awake at all, but apparently the medical staff had decided that injecting her with anesthesia was a bad idea, so long as whatever substances her mysterious rescuer had injected her with were still present within her body. For that reason, she had to suffer awake until said substances dissipated. She only wished she could have stayed unconscious a little longer.

Unfortunately, being awake allowed Rin to seriously frown upon her own stupidity. She had fallen out of a window for God's sake. How on earth had she even managed to do that? Granted, she had technically lost consciousness and couldn't really be blamed for that, but nevertheless she had nearly died in the most pathetic way possible. And now, to top it all off, she still had a headache, even as her physical pains continued to increase every minute. She had no doubt that she'd have to be put to sleep soon: with broken ribs and arms, she didn't think staying awake would be a viable option for her when her meds wore off completely.

Rin's dismal thoughts were interrupted by the sound of conversation on the opposite side of the curtain that cut her off from the rest of the room. It was a brief distraction, as she didn't really care what was being talked about, but the sound of a vaguely male voice caught her attention. She wondered if Ichika had come to see her? That would be have been unusually thoughtful of him, since Ichika was usually as dense as a rock. Screw that, a rock was too nice. A neutron star was more like it.

Even so, her heartbeat quickened as she heard footsteps approaching. Who would have thought that a terrible accident like this one would actually have a bright side to it, even if it was comparatively minor?

But as the curtain was pulled back, Rin was filled with disappointment. Sure, it was a guy, but not the guy she had been hoping for. In the place of what she wanted to be Ichika was a brown-haired boy of similar age and height in a red jacket and jeans.

She let her eyes roam over this stranger, seeing as how the only male who was usually present on campus was Ichika. Having not met a great deal of western men in her life, Rin was a little surprised to find that the one before her was actually quite handsome. Naturally, he didn't bear the same kind of facial features Ichika did, but there was no denying that he had some mix of rugged and gentle that made him seem a bit more mature than Rin's desired beau. That, and she had to admit, there was something alluring about a man with deep, dark blue eyes. Almost like a calming pool or something.

As she took note of his eyes, Rin noticed that this stranger was doing the same thing to her; although his examination of the girl on the cot was more analytical than intrigued. He seemed to take special notice of all of her injuries, specifically her right arm.

"So I take it you're doing better then? I mean, you don't seem to be dying or anything..."

The sudden English speech threw Rin off, as she was so busy thinking that she wasn't focused on actually talking to her visitor. Thankfully, anyone who seriously aimed to attend the IS Academy learned both fluent Japanese and English before arrival. They were the most frequently spoken languages at the school, after all.

"H-huh? Oh, yeah... uh...sure, I guess if you can call this better, I am. Who wants to know, anyway?"

The boy shrugged nonchalantly, revealing his identity as Rin’s savior as though it had middling importance at best.

"Just someone looking to check on their reputation. I wouldn't be able to count this ordeal as a rescue if you died from the injuries I inadvertently caused."

The American accent of her visitor was the final confirmation Rin needed to know who he was for sure. Of course, it had been pretty obvious right from the start anyway, but it never hurt to have all the absolute evidence that was needed. Of course, she had already been informed of the identity of her savior prior to now anyway. Asking about his identity had been conversational procedure more than anything else.

"So you're the one that kept me from painting the ground, huh? Thanks. But couldn't you be a little more gentle next time?"

The boy smiled ruefully, apparently amused that she would find some fault in his methods even though the alternative outcome would have been her demise. Admittedly, she did seem like that kind of girl.

"Sorry. I arrived a bit too late to make a heroic landing for either of us. If it's any consolation I would be in a lot worse shape than you if not for my suit."

Rin also knew this was true already, since Cecilia had been at her bedside when she had first exited the mire of unconsciousness. Naturally the British blonde had seen fit to inform her friend of everything that had transpired, though admittedly Rin needed that considering the lack of information she had on anything besides 'falling out a window.'

She also knew that he had apparently seen fit to strip her of her clothes right after saving her. "So, does your idea of saving someone always include getting them naked?"

The boy blushed, but managed to answer without getting completely flustered. "To be fair, you weren't _completely_ naked."

The infirm girl cocked an eyebrow at him. She might have been angry under normal circumstances, but right now she was hurting far too much to do that. Heck, she didn't even have the strength to really feel embarrassed. "Oh, no foul then. I sure hope that logic only applies to your medical work."

The redness on the boy's cheeks didn't fade, but even so he didn't start to stutter or fumble either. He was confident, which was a quality that Rin could personally appreciate.

"It might hold true on first dates too. It would depend on who's asking me."

Rin snickered at this stranger's rather fun sense of humor, which was something Ichika lacked from time to time. The latter knew how to make jokes, but they were few and far between and honestly only funny half the time.

Unfortunately she didn't get to laugh much anyway, as the pain in her torso stopped her after a mere second or two.

"O-ow...as a girl I feel like I should be offended, but that was actually funny. Ouch..."

A look of concern spread across the boy's countenance as he beheld the grimace on Rin's face.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay? Don't the nurses have you on painkillers or something? I mean, you broke a lot of bones, and I'd be willing to bet that you suffered some internal injuries too..."

The wounded girl frowned. She knew better than anyone just how not okay she was.

"Ugh, they wore off a little while ago. My arms, legs, chest... everything is killing me."

"Should I get a nurse or something? They'll give you more painkillers won't they?"

Rin made a halfway notable effort to shake her head. "I'm assuming they'll come give me more when I'm supposed to have more. Thanks for asking though."

"If you say so..."

The brunette decided to change the subject, uncomfortable with the topic of her injuries. "So I can only assume you're that American student or whatever we were told about earlier today?"

The American shook his head in reply. "No, I'm not a student of any sort. I definitely can't do anything IS related. I'm sure all of the specifics would confound me in a heartbeat anyway."

Rin was a bit annoyed with the her visitor for using a word she didn't know, and also for the fact that her own homeroom teacher had neglected to mention that he wasn't going to be a student at all. She had simply said that there would be a new boy arriving, not that he was outside of the student body. Chifuyu’s hasn’t explicitly said he wouldn’t be a student either.

"Uh...confound?"

"Confuse."

Worried that she might have come off as stupid, Rin tried to bring her conversational partner to her level. "Oh... Wait, so then why are you the one piloting a high-tech armor suit then? Shouldn't they use someone smarter to use it?"

Now it was the boy's turn to frown. "Are you saying I'm not smart enough to use it?"

Rin grinned slightly, glad to have turned the tables. With this she could avoid looking like an idiot. "No, but I mean, you did say that it confuses you. So..."

"Do you understand everything about your IS? All of the processing algorithms and whatnot that make up the software?"

Another advanced word... then again, English wasn't her first language like it was his. She could speak it readily enough, but she was still caught off guard if someone got a bit too fancy on her.

"A-algo...rithms? Um, yeah, sure I do. Don't you?"

"No. And I know you don't either. Your profile said something about a relatively low IQ... apparently that's an official fact."

Needless to say, Rin was appalled to hear this. "No way! That can't be in my profile! Hey wait, when did you read that anyway? You a stalker or something?!"

The boy laughed at her expense, apparently amused by Rin's response. He found it especially funny since he knew that this girl was no idiot at all. Her dossier had her IQ listed as one hundred thirty-one: seven points above the average IQ for IS pilots worldwide and a whole thirty-one points above her own nation's average IQ. Of course, one hundred thirty one was still relatively low compared to most of the other Representative Candidates in the school, so Church had not been entirely insincere with his joke.

"No, I'm definitely not a stalker, at least since the last time I checked. Besides, I read all of the Representative Candidate's profiles. It was a requirement before coming. And even though it does say that thing about a low IQ, you're pretty cute, so it cancels out, right?"

Having hardly expected such a blunt compliment, Rin blushed just a little. Ichika rarely ever complimented her looks. And even though this boy was saying it as a form of consolation, it still made her happy to some small extent.

"Oh...um...I... thanks... I think..."

"You seem really bothered by something that simple. Don't tell me no one has ever said that before? That would be hard to believe. T-the cute part, I mean. Not the IQ thing."

Rin frowned dejectedly, not at all happy that it was so obvious, even to a stranger who had known her for maybe five minutes. "O-of course not, my situation's nowhere near that pathetic..."

Her visitor seemed a little suspicious of this answer, but before he could say anything he was interrupted by one of the white clad nurses pulling aside the curtain. "Excuse me you two, but it's time to administer some more pain medication, and probably anesthesia as well."

Nodding at this, the boy turned back towards Rin with a slightly disappointed expression. "Well then, I guess I'll get going. Technically I was 'recommended' to not tour the grounds in the first place, though Miss Orimura definitely made it sound more like an order..."

The thought of it made Rin smile. This guy had a lot to learn about Chifuyu.

"Pretty much everything that she ever says sounds like an order."

The boy smiled too, though his was more disconcerted than pleased. "That's reassuring... well, I hope I'll see you around sometimes. Not sure when or where all things considered, but still..."

As he turned to leave, Rin called out to him. She found it strange that the most obligatory part of a conversation between strangers had not taken place."Hey, wait!"

He turned to face her, a questioning expression entirely evident. "What?"

"You didn't tell me your name. Pretty rude, don't you think?"

The boy made a displeased face upon hearing this, but it didn't seem to be directed at the question itself. More like the answer to the question. "Right... it's uh, Church. Yes, like a congregation or a building, but it is what it is, so roll with it."

Rin cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well if you don't like it just use your first name. Duh."

Church's look of displeasure intensified. "I'd really rather not..."

Rin closed her eyes and leaned her head back as the nurse inserted a syringe into the only exposed part of her left arm. With all of the other pains in her body, she barely felt it.

"Whatever you say. If we do run into each other again, my name's Rinin. I'd let you shorten it, but that's only for guys I actually like."

Somewhat sure that was a joke, Church seemed amused by the sentiment. "What, are you still mad about what happened under the tree? I thought it was pretty romantic, if I do say so myself."

Nowhere near as amused as he by this, Rin frowned. "That's almost frightening. Look, with all these drugs I'm getting kinda sleepy here, so..."

She could hear her new acquaintance recede a few steps from her bedside as he headed for the door. "Right. Well then, maybe later."

"Yeah, maybe..."

It was the last thing she said before drifting off into a drug-induced sleep, for which she was extremely grateful. Whether or not she actually encountered that particular individual again, she didn't really care either way, but at the least, she wouldn’t have minded it.

As for Church, he wasted little time in exiting the medical area since he had nothing else to do there. Technically speaking, visiting Rin had been a waste of time since it didn't pertain to any sort of practical goal, but for now at least, such things didn't matter much. It was literally only his first day here: achieving his complicated and risky objective was going to take more time than this. If anything, he felt certain there was a long road ahead. Frankly, Umbra Stratum hadn't provided a whole lot of direction in how he was supposed to go about securing the Akatsubaki data, leaving most everything up to his discretion.

Problem was, most of his training under their employ had been air combat related, not subterfuge. That being the case, he had a lot to figure out in regards to getting near Houki Shinonono, the pilot, and actually copying the full data of her machine. He supposed just sneaking into her room as she slept was always an option, but such a straightforward approach was risky in more ways than one. Getting caught in that act guaranteed there would be no second chances.

Church wasn't particularly eager to expedite the mission anyway: it had been a long time since he'd had a chance to exist in a relatively normal social environment like this. He had no desire to cut the experience short prematurely.

Turning down the hall as he contemplated what to do next, Church returned his attention to his surroundings when he accidentally bumped shoulders with someone walking the opposite direction. Lost in his thoughts, he hadn't really been paying attention to the dangers of pedestrian life.

Not one to be impolite for no reason, Church turned to apologize to the person he had run into. To his not so great surprise, the person in question was one Ichika Orimura, who was likewise turning to apologize to him. The Japanese boy beat him to the punch, however.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to run into you like that."

Well aware that he was the one who hadn't been paying attention, Church had no choice but to reciprocate the notion.

"Not at all, I'm the one who wasn't looking where he was going. Ichika Orimura, right?"

Since it was impossible to not know him around this school being the only male on the student roster, Ichika didn't seem surprised to be identified so readily.

"That's right. Nice to meet you...?"

The way he petered off made it obvious that Ichika was asking for his name, but so did the outstretched arm looking for a handshake. Apparently he knew that Westerners weren't big on bowing.

Admittedly, Church was less invested in fraternizing with the only dude around when there were tons of girls he could talk to instead, but that didn't mean he was completely against being a friendly acquaintance with Ichika. With that in mind, he clasped the proffered hand within a moment and introduced himself.

"Church. Nice to meet you."

Once the handshake was over and done with, Ichika actually did bow, much to Church's surprise.

"Chifuyu said you were the one that saved Rin from her fall. Thank you for saving my friend. Actually, let me thank you on behalf of all of her friends. I'm sure some of the others will forget to do it..."

"Don't mention it. I'd hope anyone with the power to do so would have helped her in that moment."

Rising from his bow, Ichika smiled, apparently pleased with Church's reasoning. Maybe it resonated with his noble spirit or something.

"I'm glad to hear you speak of it in such a way. It's a man's duty to help others in need, even if they're complete strangers."

Church could visualize a clenched fist to go along with this, even though Ichika made no such motion. He knew from the dossier that Ichika was a pretty traditional individual in regards to masculine values, which was surprising considering the woman's world of today. But the statement still seemed a little out of left field.

"Uh-huh..."

"By the way, you are actually a man, right? The last time a guy showed up here, he ended up being a girl..."

Recalling that part of an incident report involving a certain French blonde, Church felt just mildly offended. Unlike Charlotte posing as a boy some time ago, Church had a physique and height that was distinctly more masculine: it would have been very hard for him to be a girl considering all that. But Ichika had already been bamboozled once, so he supposed he couldn't blame the guy for the paranoia.

"Yeah, I am actually a guy. I'm not a student though, so don't expect that to take too much pressure off of you regarding all of these girls."

Contrary to what Church had expected, Ichika actually sighed at this. For a moment, his visage looked like that of the most exhausted man in the world.

"Well, even if you only take a bit of it, that'd be good enough for me. I wouldn't want you to take even half of it for your own sake: I wouldn't wish that on even my worst enemy..."

Church cocked an eyebrow, surprised to see the young man across from him speak of his situation with such exhaustion. Ichika was living the dream: or at least, what many boys thought was the dream. Maybe being the sole target of affection from a horde of capable and strong-willed girls wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Now that he thought about it, Church could see how such a situation could be exhausting: you only had so much room in your heart to care about people. And if literally everyone wanted a piece, there were bound to be a lot of frustrated girls. And frustrated girls could be very scary.

To be fair, that was mostly conjecture on Church's part. Maybe Ichika was talking about something else entirely.

"By the way, if you were heading this way to visit your friend, the staff knocked her out with medicine a few minutes ago. I don't think she'll be up for a conversation."

"Oh, that's too bad. I just wanted to check and see if she was alright, but if you did already, that's good enough for me. Thanks for checking in on her."

Frankly, Church found that sentiment a little weird: sure, he had already seen that Rinin was alive and tended to, but the girl was Ichika's friend, not his. He would have expected Ichika to have checked in on her regardless of Church's own involvement. Maybe he just didn't understand the relationships between these people he had just met.

"Yeah, no problem... listen, it was a pleasure meeting you and all, but I need to go conduct some maintenance on my machine after that crash earlier. I'll see you around."

While Church was blatantly lying, it didn't seem like Ichika had picked up on it in any way.

"Sure, I understand. Thanks again for what you did."

With a wave, Church turned his back on the boy and continued walking the way he had been before. It was at this time that Cerberus spoke up.

_Really Operator A2, don't you feel bad for lying so easily? The Exeter suit is already in optimal condition. And we both know you're not cutting the encounter short to focus on the mission._

Church rolled his eyes since no one was currently around to see him do it.

_Look, nothing against the guy: he's a little weird, but Ichika seems stand-up enough. That said, if I'm going to waste time fraternizing with people regardless, I'd much rather it be one of the many, many cute girls around here and not the one dude on the whole campus. I have a lot of lost time to make up for, you know._

_I do not understand what you mean._

_I'm just saying, I didn't get a whole lot of time to spend with girls before joining Umbra Stratum. And definitely no time after. The past few years have been dedicated to making money, and little else._

There was a moment of silence as Cerberus likely read through some sort of record.

_Ah, yes. The travails of the United States healthcare system, is it? I must say, your background initially surprised me when I first learned of it. To think, doting son was the all-important selection criteria required for the Exeter suit's pilot._

_I think 'really good pilot' was actually the all-important selection criteria. Umbra Stratum doesn't care about why I joined. That's why they are willing to shell out so much cash to keep me around._

Perhaps sensing the irritation in Church's response, Cerberus wisely avoided discussing it further. Church was actually impressed by the tact it had seemingly lacked thus far.

_Well then, perhaps we should dedicate some time to developing our plan for accomplishing the mission, Operator A2. Your much valued paycheck relies on your performance, after all._

With his mood somewhat soured by this most recent discussion, Church decided that getting some fresh air would do some good in that regard. It was easier to think on the move anyway.

_Fair enough._

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Church was flying circles around the spiral shaped Academy tower, for two reasons. First and foremost, he found it easier to think when he was physically preoccupied by something simple. Flying around in circles was easy, and no one seemed to care that he was doing it. Second, even though Cerberus had assured him the Exeter suit was in prime condition again, Church wanted to make that judgment himself, for ease of mind if nothing else.

The exercise was mostly being used to facilitate some relaxing brainstorming, since Cerberus was right in saying that they needed to start planning for the accomplishment of their mission. Right this moment though, the process had drifted into a conversation of a different sort.

_So, I know we've known each other for less than a day, but how long will it take you to settle on one personality archetype? No offense, but I don't quite like every version of you.  
_

If the AI was offended in any way by this statement, it did not show in its answer.

_I am very close to settling on the perfect archetype to assist you in your endeavors. Though personally I find it disheartening that you do not enjoy my violent side._

Church sighed as he rocketed around another twist in the Academy tower's strange architecture.

_Well I may or may not be worried that you could have some sort of negative impact on my psyche._

Cerberus switched to a more calming side of itself _,_ which Church actually found ironic all things considered.

_Fear not, Operator A2, I have no such effect on your mind._

Wondering if this AI was actually advanced enough to be the asshole humans knew how to be, Church decided it was best not to find out until it was absolutely necessary.

_I don't suppose I can get you to stop calling me that?_

_Would you prefer that I address you as Operator-Church?  
_

The pilot in question cut the energy supply to his thrusters and landed on the side of the tower, using the magnetic mesh on his gauntlets and boots to effortlessly stick to the surface.

_I'll accept that if you call me just one or the other.  
_

Cerberus answered in its neutral tone once more.

_Apologies, Operator A2, but I cannot remove Operator from your title. It is a written algorithm in my processor. Marcus the All Powerful has hardwired that into my core.  
_

Church couldn't help but shake his head at that information.

_Why am I not surprised that Marcus coded something like that into you? His title, I mean...  
_

_I imagine it is because you probably expected him to.  
_

Church shrugged, nodding to himself. Marcus was a good guy, but just a little conceited about his technological creations and advancements. The ridiculous moniker was right up his alley.

"Yeah, probably..."

Cerberus may have had something to say after that, but its constant scan of its surroundings actually revealed something useful at this point.

_Operator, direct your attention 49.8 degrees southward, and increase magnification to 3.5x. I believe you will see something of interest._

Church did as he was told, and he did indeed find something of interest. A zoomed view of a certain silver-haired Representative Candidate, looking none-too pleased as she spoke sternly into a phone.

_Hmm... I won't say I'm not interested, but is there any value in interacting with her? As far as the mission is concerned, we've no reason to investigate her or her I.S._

_Operator, while this may be true, it is also worth noting that the individual in question does have some sort of relationship to Houki Shinonono, who is relevant to our mission. Considering that we are doing little else of import right this moment, there's no harm in an investigation that may reveal useful information._

_I suppose you have a point there. Besides, she is super cute..._

_Operator, please make your decisions using a more valuable criteria._

Church briefly acknowledged that Cerberus had removed the A2 from his designation, but he didn't get to enjoy it that much since he was busy being ribbed by the thing.

_Fine, we'll investigate because it could turn up something useful we can use, and for no other reason. Happy?_

_I would be, if only I actually believed you._

Shaking his head, Church peeled off the tower he was resting on and began his descent to the surface. Sometimes he wondered if mental arguments in his head were bad for his sanity.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It really is surreal to upload old chapters and realize just how short they are compared to what usually happens in modern updates. I wonder when the length actually started growing?


	5. Touchy Subjects

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Church attempts to gather information regarding the machine of a Representative Candidate, but the eavesdropping operation takes a turn for the worse. Following his escape from certain doom, he stumbles upon some internal drama regarding some of his new acquaintances and the nature of their relationships.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really can't get over how short these chapters are. I mean, I know they're old and written back when I didn't produce chapters of greater length, but it makes me feel kind of bad to put out short updates. That said, I firmly believe that creating extraneous scenes just to pad out some sort of word quota negatively impacts a story, so it is what it is. I won't go back and add new things just to extend chapter length, if it serves no purpose.
> 
> Fortunately, the length of each chapter tends to get gradually longer until we hit a much more comfortable length per chapter. That's still a ways off, though.

Church switched his thrusters to stealth mode as he descended to the ground several hundred feet below him. Stealth mode was good for little else other than hovering, but it reduced the emissions and the sounds emitted from the suit, so it was preferable for sneaking up on angry German Representative Candidates yelling into communication devices. Truth be told he didn't even know if there was a reason to approach her stealthily, but if he wanted to learn what she was talking about he'd have to at least get closer than he was right now, and if she knew he was there, chances were she'd stop talking about whatever she was discussing at the moment.

As he reached the base of the twisted tower, Church engaged active camouflage to further hide himself. This equipment scanned the environment around Exeter, and replicated it onto the outer panels of the armor, effectively making Church invisible. Of course, it wasn't perfect; anyone paying close enough attention would notice a distortion in the air where there shouldn't be one. The effect, if noticed, looked a lot like heat waves coming off of blacktop. And of course, it drained a significant amount of energy, so it couldn't be used during combat.

Knowing that his footfalls in the heavy suit would cause far more noise than he needed, Church adjusted the levels of the energy shield on the bottoms of his feet to maximum, creating such a barrier that technically, he was standing on his shield, which was standing on the ground. This way, he could soundlessly slide towards his destination instead of walk.

It was a bit like ice skating, and according to the techies back in the States, 'not recommended for combat operations.' Church didn't need personal experience to understand why that was the case.

Satisfied that all of the necessary stealth precautions had been taken, Church began to make his way towards the grove of trees and the lake in the central grounds of the Academy, where he had seen the girl he was interested in. The combination of shield-sliding and grass was awkward at first, but Church readjusted his movements without much trouble, and silently made it to his destination without incident.

Seeing his target of observation ahead, Church slid behind a large tree, and mentally issued Cerberus an order to maintain silence. _Cerberus, amplify voice recognition to required levels for overhearing the target's conversation. Neutralize background noise_.

The toneless voice that answered gave no emotion to hint at its thoughts on the eavesdropping, and merely complied with a bland, _Affirmative, Operator._

Church smiled as all other sounds, be it the wind or chirping birds, were drowned out and the voice he was eavesdropping on became clear. Whether or not she was speaking in German, Japanese, or any other language, he didn't know. Whatever it was, Exeter translated it into English before it reached his ears, and even in her tone of voice. Modern technology never ceased to amaze him.

"What do you mean it's not ready!? Panzerfaust was supposed to be complete long before now! Clarissa, I need this package before the next major tournament!"

Of course Church couldn't hear the other voice on the headset, but it was easy enough to tell that one of the conversationalists was unhappy and the other was making excuses, though whether or not they were valid was a mystery.

"When will the weapon data be available? I need it as soon as possible! Schwarzer Regen's railgun is falling behind. It wasn't even enough for the Silver Gospel, and now Houki has the most advanced I.S. anyone has ever seen. It seems to me that my opponents are all growing stronger, and I need a bigger gun."

Even though he could only hear half of the conversation, Church understood the gist of this one with little trouble. After all, the girl had spelled it out rather easily. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting to hear out of her, but in the end this ultimately had nothing to do with him. In the near future, perhaps he could gather the data for this new weapon she was talking about, but for now all this conversation did for him was let him know about it.

Deciding that he had heard enough to satisfy his curiosity, Church turned to make his escape when his slippery footing threw him under the bus. Having very little experience with this type of movement in the first place since it was hardly conventional in any sense, the low friction on the bottom of his shielded feet caused him to practically kick his own legs out from under him. An amateur mistake perhaps, but to be fair this was the only time he had ever attempted this with the energy shields, so technically he was one.

Still, he attempted to save himself from a noisy reveal, grabbing onto a nearby branch, but his quick reaction exerted more force than he had intended: his grip snapped the branch in two, and he ungracefully fell to the ground with a loud crash of metal on dirt and bark.

Knowing that there was no way the German girl had not heard him at this point, Church quickly deactivated his armor in order to avoid a tragic misunderstanding about the situation. If he appeared to be sneaking up on her in that, she could have misconstrued his intent as lethal, and that certainly wouldn't have been good. As his suit was collapsing in on itself and compressing into a smaller pieces, Church scrambled to get back to his feet. He was only half way up when the one he had been spying on discovered him. Thankfully the armor had disappeared by then.

"You…"

Church got back to his feet as quickly as possible. Coming face to face with the girl, he affirmed that she was most definitely Laura Bodewig, one of the Representative Candidates he had read about before arrival. Of course, he had been pretty positive of that before now, but seeing her face left absolutely zero room for doubt.

"Ah, uh… hello Miss Bodewig. Sorry I startled you."

His apology had no effect on the stern and suspicious gaze of the eye-patched girl.

"Is that so? It's more likely that you're just sorry I caught you spying on me."

Seeing that her expression wasn't softening in the slightest, Church struggled to hold back a grimace. He remembered Bodewig's dossier mentioning her as quite the astute young girl, at least when it came to piloting and logical application. Apparently her social skills left something to be desired at times, but it was not as if she needed those at the moment.

That being the case, Church decided to take a different approach to this situation, besides trying to lie himself out of it. 

"Alright, fine. Yes, I was spying on you, but not for any particularly bad reason."

Bodewig cocked an eyebrow at him. "For what good reason would you be sneaking through the trees like you were? I hardly see how you could have had good intentions."

Church thought carefully about his answer, and decided he would tell an altered truth. "Well, to be honest with you, I was just trying to get my mind off of my situation. After seeing my room, I got kind of depressed about my stay here. I saw you while flying around and decided to investigate, but you looked rather angry, so I wasn't going to approach you directly..."

Apparently not believing him, the girl he was trying to deceive scowled. "Is that the best excuse you could come up with? The student body notwithstanding, this is one of the most prestigious institutions in the entire world. I'm sure your quarters are of the finest standards-"

"The previous occupant of my room was a opossum. I'm still not even sure what one is doing in Japan..."

The German girl's argument died with that revelation. "Oh… I see. You were assigned to _that_ room. Well, I guess I do feel sort of bad for even you… however, I still do not believe your story. Your impressive stealth is a testament to your true intentions. Well... impressive right up until the end, that is..."

Church shrugged off the criticism as he thought of ways to salvage this awkward meeting. "Well that's not necessarily true. I mean sure, I could've been sneaking up on you to stab you in the back or something, but on the other hand, maybe I was hiding because a guy like myself suddenly coming up behind a beautiful woman like you could be misinterpreted as something more… questionable. I mean, someone with excellent training like you would probably roundhouse me if I showed up unannounced."

Clearly surprised at the very unexpected compliments, Bodewig blushed slightly and scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. Seeing that this had aided Church's cause considerably, Cerberus quipped up from within his mind.

_Well played, Operator, well played indeed._

Even so, the girl in front of Church quickly recovered her composure and glared at him accusingly. "Be that as it may, you are an untrustworthy individual, and the possibility of hostile intentions is too high! You are no doubt spying on the Representative Candidates so that you may acquire an advantage when battling us later."

That last sentence caused a spike of panic within Church. _Shit, does she already expect that we're technically at odds here?_

Cerberus answered him calmly.

_It is not possible for this human to be aware of our objective. Do not lose your composure over a mere coincidence.  
_

Church would've rolled his eyes at Cerberus' advice had the German in front of him not been watching him so closely. However, the AI was right, and the chance of his ulterior motive being known by anyone in the Academy was almost zero. Not impossible, but damn close.

"Battling you? I'm only here to share data, not fight. Were you told otherwise?"

The girl in front of him frowned. "It was my understanding that you were here to share the secrets of new American technology. That said, it is extremely likely that we will spar at some point in the future, _therefore,_ you are likely spying on me only in hopes of ascertaining something useful in regards to that! Or are you saying there’s another reason?”

Seeing that he had missed an opportunity to agree with Laura’s assumption and that this conversation was only going further and further downhill the longer it dragged on, Church devised an efficient, yet crude way to distract this girl from her suspicious thoughts on him. It was really tactless and blunt, but right now he just needed to get her mind off of her current train of thought. Making her angry could do that.

"Is that so? You take things awfully seriously, don't you? Then again, most flat girls have that type of personality, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised…"

The victim of this slander merely cocked an eyebrow at him, seemingly not irritated at all or even understanding his point. "I hardly see what that has to do with this conversation."

Despite his confusion in regards to the ineffectiveness of his words, Church shrugged nonchalantly. "Well you know, small girls like you tend to have more brusque and sometimes violent personalities, so..."

Even this didn't seem to affect the girl before him, though she did seem to finally understand what he meant as she glanced down at her modest bust.

"Hm. I suppose that may be true in most circumstances. After all, it certainly applies to Rin... still, what does that have to do with our discussion?"

Church resisted the urge to frown as his plan failed miserably. He had hoped to get the girl before him angry and flustered to distract her from her suspicions of him and allow a quick getaway, but it wasn't working, at least not along this tangent. Surely there was some quality she had that she didn't like pointed out...

He briefly wondered if her eye was a touchy subject for her, but even in order to escape this situation, Church was unwilling to verbally attack her over that. If it truly was something painful for her, doing that would just be cruel. That being the case, wasn't there something harmless to tease her over...?

_Operator, if it has not occurred to you yet, I advise you to realize that this individual is very short. Four foot eleven, in fact. Compared to you at approximately five foot ten, she is a whole eleven inches shorter than you. Generally speaking, short people do not like being reminded that they are short._

Mentally face-palming for not realizing this sooner, Church put on the smuggest expression he could muster.

"Well, it that isn't the reason for your hostile disposition, it has to be something else. But what, I wonder? Is it perhaps...? But no, it couldn't be..."

Laura seemed entirely confused by what Church was hinting at, but said nothing as she waited for him to finish.

"Well, they do say that the shorter you are, the closer you are to hell-"

Before he could even check to see how effective his goading was, Church was forced to recoil away from a laser blade swing to his torso. Apparently he had hit the mark this time around. The look of cold malice on Bodewig's face was enough to inform him of that.

"Since you're so eager to die, allow me to oblige you."

Church briefly wondered if he had made a terrible mistake, but he was soon too busy dodging lethal swings to answer himself. As for Cerberus, he felt the need to state the obvious for some reason.

_Operator, while we have succeeded in distracting the female from her more worrisome judgments, it is high time we make ourselves scarce._

With killer intent filling the immediate area around him, Church hastily retreated away from his attacker. Unfortunately, he only made it a few steps before a black and purple wire found its way around his neck.

_Jesus, isn't this a little much?!_

Looking back to see the German pilot mobilizing different parts of her Schwarzer Regen to murder him with, Church quickly activated Exeter, or at least the right arm of it, which possessed his plasma blade. Seriously fearing for his life at the very least, never mind the very most, the American pilot quickly sliced through the wire coiled around him, before activating the rest of his suit and taking off into the air.

Once he made it a somewhat safe distance away, Church looked back at the girl who had nearly killed him, if only to gloat as he escaped. Thankfully, turning towards her allowed him to dodge the railgun shot she had just fired at him as well, at which point Church discarded gloating for simply retreating as quickly as he possibly could from the devil he had inadvertently created.

Ironically, nothing about this situation had debunked the saying regarding short people and hell. In fact, it had only reinforced it many, many times over.

* * *

Hours later, Church twisted one of Exeter's fiber optic cables around the corner of one of the Academy's hallways, careful to avoid contact with anyone (Especially Bodewig), as he made his way back to his decrepit room.

Fortunately, the German girl had decided against chasing him down and murdering him earlier that day, likely because unauthorized I.S. combat on Academy grounds was practically begging for a political shitstorm. Whether or not she had aimed so well on purpose, Laura's railgun blast earlier had missed the Academy tower by a wide margin, but if it had hit, who knows what could have happened.

But that was all moot at this point. Church had gotten away, and he had not encountered his assailant since the fiasco. All he had to do was keep it that way as he returned to his sorry excuse for living quarters.

That was still a risky proposition, as he was on floor forty, and still had roughly ten more to go. Since he was averse to using the elevator, lest he bring unwanted attention to himself from any girls that may have had a reason to ascend this high, Church was making use of the stairs, as low tech and tiresome as they were.

After confirming that the hallway was indeed clear at five in the afternoon, he proceeded to silently creep along the linear path that led to a separate flight of stairs. Cerberus couldn't help but question his pilot's overly-cautious behavior.

_Operator, it is unlikely that any students are in the vicinity at this time. They are most likely leaving their final classes, which are all held on floors other than this one. In fact, if you think about it, nearly 80% of this tower is uninhabited at any time... no one should be this far up at this particular time besides you.  
_

Church responded mentally to his A.I. companion. _Yeah, but you can never be too careful… why does this place have so many floors anyway? There certainly aren't enough students to fill them all, even back when they had a larger roster._

Cerberus responded nonchalantly. _It is likely because they built the tower as a fancy monument before a practical building. They probably didn't consider the excess space until after construction was completed, or they just didn't care. Although, I seem to have been mistaken about the presence of others this far up. There are two heat signatures four rooms down the hall._

Church froze at the mention of it, plastering himself against the hallway wall and now more vigilant in maintaining silence.

_You idiot, why didn't you tell me sooner?_

_It did not seem important at the time._

_Well it was definitely important for me!_

_But not for me._

Exeter's pilot retorted, _Well what's important to me takes priority over what's important to you!_

_I was under the impression that we were partners?  
_

Church rolled his eyes as Cerberus tried this approach. _If we're partners, you should warn me about dangers to my person!_ _  
_

_I assure you neither of the heat signatures in question are short enough to be who you think they are._

Church finally realized he was arguing with a machine (and possibly losing said argument) and returned his attention to moving down the hallway as silently as possible. As he neared the door Cerberus had marked a few moments ago, that same A.I. spoke up once more.

_Operator, explain something to me.  
_

Such an unexpected remark caused a moment of confusion to scramble Church's thoughts. _I can't even begin to imagine how odd this is going to be..._ _  
_

Cerberus replied with a tone of amusement. _The aforementioned heat signatures are alone in a room that is clearly not used for anything, on a floor that is rarely visited. It is obvious that they have come here for privacy, yet they are not doing anything that would require privacy in the first place.  
_

Church cocked an eyebrow at the interest. _Should I care about this?_

_Only if you think it matters that the two people involved are both ones you read about before arrival._

Church faked a gasp. _Oh no, I missed an episode of my favorite drama! Do tell who hooked up with who._

Cerberus took a few moments to respond, likely because it was running through some process or another to determine the brevity it should reply with.

_It would seem that the French One and the only other male within five miles are... something. I would say star-crossed lovers, but they are hardly doing anything to warrant that label.  
_

_What exactly are they doing anyway?_

_Very awkwardly sitting near one another and talking in a gutted engineering room. Operator, is it normal for the female to have such a higher heart rate than the male in these situations?_

Church almost answered 'yes', but he changed his mind after a moment of thought.

_Not if they're like, super in love or something. In that case it's usually both people whose hearts are racing. What, Little Orimura isn't excited or anything? What kind of guy wouldn't be excited even to just have a genuine conversation with a girl that stunning?_

_I am merely calling it as I see it, Operator. One looks far more invested than the other.  
_

Church questioned the idea of Dunois and Orimura being together beyond friends. Granted, according to Cerberus it didn't sound like they were doing anything beyond the platonic, but generally speaking friends didn't run off by themselves to get away from all of their other friends.

Such a thing as teenage romance may have seemed like a minor aspect of the grand scheme of things, but in this specific situation, it had more far-reaching implications. According to the intel Umbra Stratum had compiled for him, several of the Representative Candidates shared feelings for Orimura, so the fact that he may have already chosen one of them could have a seriously negative impact on the behavior of the others. Church didn't even want to know what Chifuyu's reaction to this revelation would be: provided she didn't already know. She seemed like a hard woman to keep secrets from. Either way, she'd be furious if she knew her younger brother was skipping out on studying to hang out with a girlfriend, but at least he wasn't actually getting up to anything interesting.

Like an idiot.

Alone in a room with a girl that beautiful and (assuming she wanted to) not getting up to anything frisky? Church hadn't even met the guy and he already didn't trust him. That just wasn't human.

Church shook his head as if to clear his mind. _C'mon, Cerberus, this is none of our business. Besides, we still have another ten flights of stairs to go, so we'd better get a move on._

His A.I. sighed at this. _As you wish Operator. I for one think it is better that they are not engaging in anything considered 'romantic.' Do you have any idea how unsanitary-"  
_

_Shut up, before you ruin something I'm seriously looking forward to in the future._

The rest of their trip to their ancient room consisted of a futile attempt to keep Cerberus from spouting the facts about human intimate relations. While he was unsure of how he would, Church made a mental note to wipe all of these facts from his memory at a later date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Charlotte and Ichika are in a relationship. Why? Well, one of the biggest issues with canon Infinite Stratos is the fact that the romance is an infinite stalemate where nothing ever advances. It's unreasonable to believe that, out of all five girls, not a one of them never gets frustrated with things and straight up says "I love you, go out with me." And out of all of those girls, I feel that Charlotte is actually the one who could muster up that courage and be honest and straightforward about it.
> 
> Now, as to why Ichika agrees to it, well that depends on which interpretation of his character you subscribe to. Is he as dense as a neutron star? Or is he faking ignorance to escape the travails of having affection from many women? Would he accept a romance he's not invested in out of some misguided sense of chivalrous obligation? Well, that's something that's not going to get touched on until later. A bit later, since, as you may have surmised, this story isn't explicitly about Ichika, regardless of his involvement in it.


	6. The Offer Is On The Table

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Church discovers the fate of the girl he rescued upon first arriving at the IS Academy, establishing his first real rapport with those he is deceiving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone finds a typo or an inconsistency somewhere, please let me know. Despite reading over this whole story several times, something always manages to elude me. Having it pointed out by readers really helps.

Having decided to purge his filthy room before even dreaming of residing in it last night, Church finally finished doing just that early the next morning. He had targeted all of the mold the atrocious room housed with his concentrated lasers, and by now he was only willing to fall back onto his sandpaper sheet bed, tired as all hell. He still wore his suit, since he had been up all night attempting to purify his room of all the uncleanliness it housed. Somehow, despite his efforts, the room looked as desolate and dirty as it had before he had began, if not more so. He had recently discovered that termites were chewing their way through his wooden bed-frame, and he had been too tired to deal with them. Of course the big question was how said termites had made it all the way up here through a steel tower.

All things considered, he was content to sleep in his armor for now, and was just about to doze off peacefully when fate unkindly informed him of another, much less welcome idea.

"Wake up, buttercup!"

Church tumbled out of bed as Chifuyu practically kicked down his rotten door and bellowed at him like a drill sergeant. "It's time for breakfast and it is not optional! Report to the mess hall immediately!"

Her victim clawed his way back on top of his bed, dazed and confused, yet perfectly capable of voicing his incredulity. "You came up to the fiftieth floor to tell me that?! It's only 6 A.M.!"

Despite herself, Chifuyu smiled devilishly, though it was slight. She made a show of being strict for someone's own good, but she did honestly enjoy the looks of horror sometimes. "I know, but since it never dawned on you to fix the wall you are completely responsible for breaking, you're being punished. So get going!"

Church inwardly groaned as he watched the commanding woman leave, and Cerberus felt the need to pipe up in his head. _As you humans say, the early bird gets the worm.  
_

_I'd shoot you for that if only I somehow could.  
_

* * *

Wearily trudging into the 'mess hall', which was actually a very nice cafeteria, Church noticed the presence of a few other early risers. A trio of girls sat at a table on the right, one of them wearing some strange pajamas that reminded him of Pikachu or that one fox Digimon thing (Despite being down here, this girl was in fact sleeping).

Scanning the rest of the room, he spotted a few other people of interest. Dunois and her possibly maybe boyfriend Orimura were here as well, though only the blonde seemed to be enjoying herself. Orimura looked like he would have rather been sleeping, a notion Church agreed with entirely. Ignoring the two of them, Church scanned the room with tired eyes, ignoring the many flirtatious or interested looks he was getting from different girls, until he spotted the most dangerous living thing within a hundred miles of his current position.

Bodewig, clearly an early riser herself (Not surprising considering her ex-soldier background), sat at a table on the opposite side of the room all by her lonesome. She was currently leveling a death glare at Church that could have probably incinerated his God damn soul if he remained under her scrutiny for too long. Why she was sitting by herself instead of with Orimura was beyond his concern at the moment, but if he took the time to analyze the situation, Church probably would have noticed that she seemed irritable about the situation between said boy and Charlotte.

Ignorant of any of that, Church quickly looked around the rest of the room for any means of salvation from a painful and grisly death, and he noticed the top of a brown-haired girl's head in one of the booths to his left. Not caring what she might think of it, Church sidled over to the table and sat down across from her, hoping that Bodewig would be less likely to murder him if he had someone else to witness the crime.

Before he even identified the girl he now shared this table with, Church glanced over at Bodewig to see if his plan had worked. Luckily, she didn't seem to be getting ready to slaughter him, but the thoughts he imagined running through her head were quite... disturbing.

"Y'know, when you said you'd see me around, I didn't think you meant this soon."

Recognizing the voice of the one person he actually liked in this school so far., Church turned to face his new breakfast companion. Of course, he was also shocked to see her at all.

"Rinin? Shouldn't you be in the infirmary? There's absolutely no way you've recovered already."

The girl across from him, both her arms and her head wrapped in bandages (or in a sling, in the case of her more severely injured right arm), and covered in healing cuts and bruises, cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Oh really? Did you figure that out all by yourself?"

Church frowned at the vitriolic retort. "Hey, I was just worried. Besides, what am I supposed to think? You _are_ out of the infirmary after all, and only a day after nearly dying for crying out loud."

Seeing that she was hardly in the right here, Rin sighed. "Yeah, you're right... sorry, I'm just... my whole body hurts, and I'm really feeling pretty bad right now. Guess I was just taking it out on you."

Nodding knowingly, Church tried to mentally recall what level medical technology was currently at. Even so, he couldn't see how it would be possible for Rin's serious injuries to be healed by now. "It's alright, no hard feelings. But back to my first question, why on earth are you out here? You've got a broken right arm, a few broken ribs, some cracked ones, and you're covered in cuts and bruises. On top of all that, you got all these injuries _yesterday._ Something about all of that doesn't add up."

The Chinese girl nodded and glared at nothing in particular. "Well, I _should_ be in bed, but some experimental numbing agent is being tested on me since I'm so readily available, as Chifuyu-Sensei put it, and the nurses told me to at least come here and get breakfast since I was hurting too much to sleep as it was, provided that I didn't collapse out of pain or anything."

Church looked at his table companion incredulously. "They're using you for a guinea pig while you're in this state? We're talking about bruised and broken bones here, there's no way you should be doing anything other than resting! Seriously: it's only been one fucking day. There is no way this could be good for you. Or even legal for that matter..."

Agreeing completely but unable to do anything about it, Rin nodded. "Well apparently, Chifuyu-Sensei came by right as I was complaining about the pain, and according to her, if I have enough energy to whine, I have enough energy to get breakfast myself. She also said it would be knocking out two birds with one stone, hence the numbing agent experiment thing. As for whether or not this is legal... who the hell knows?"

"But is it even working? I mean, you are here, but are you actually feeling alright?"

Rin grimaced as she tried to move her left arm a bit, since it was not immobilized like her right one. Having avoided breaking anything in that arm, she could move it, but the severe bruising was painful even with the medication she was on. "Well enough, I guess. Relatively speaking I guess it's actually working really well, but I'd still rather not move at all..."

Church noted the full plate of food in front of Rin, and concluded that her motivation to remain still was pretty intense. "Are you going to eat that?"

Clearly hungry, Rin eyed the plate of Chinese cuisine tiredly. "Well I'd like to, but it really hurts too much to move..."

Feeling bad for the girl, Church looked around the cafeteria and found no nurses anywhere nearby (Which was appalling, considering such an injured person was here).

He turned back to face Rin, who was staring longingly at her food, yet unwilling to make the necessary motions to put it into her mouth. Church swallowed before saying something he hadn't ever planned on uttering in his life. Hopefully he didn't come off as a weirdo.

"You know Rinin, if you're really that hungry, and you hurt that much... I could feed your breakfast to you."

Initially flustered by the suggestion, Rin then gave him a peculiar look. "I... don't think that's a good idea..."

Of course, Church knew why she thought so. Besides him being a near complete stranger, this was clearly something she only looked forward to Orimura doing for her. But still, she really needed to eat something after going through all the trouble of being here in such bad shape, so Church decided to change the rules a bit to get her to accept his proposition.

"We can make it an exchange of favors."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

Certain that this would work, Church continued with confidence. "You could use my help, and I'd like to learn a little more about your culture. We can trade."

Rin frowned for a moment, intent on resisting further, but as her stomach grumbled, she quickly relented. "F-fine... but that's all this is: favors! Speaking of which, do you even know how to use chopsticks?"

Smiling, Church gathered up the wooden utensils in his hands. "I do. Years of eating at Panda Express have honed my commendable skills."

Hardly able to keep a straight face with a comment like that, Rin gave a little bark of derisive laughter. "You can't be serious. That garbage _is not_ Chinese food. I bet if you tried my sweet and sour pork, you'd never go back to that crap quality trash again."

Seeing an opportunity, Church smiled at the girl as charmingly as he could manage. "I don't suppose that's an invitation...?"

Caught off guard by the question at first, Rin eventually smiled back. It almost felt like she was being flirted with, and while she would have preferred it to be Ichika a million times over, she also knew that Ichika would never, ever talk to her like this. He didn't have the wits about him to even know how to flirt really. That being the case, it was a nice change of pace, even if it was coming from the wrong guy.

"Well, maybe I'll think about it."

Glad to have gotten such a response out of a cute girl, Church's smile widened just a bit. He had not had a meaningful conversation with a girl in a long time, since he had spent so long in training for Exeter. As he poked the chopsticks he wielded with admittedly decent proficiency into the sticky white rice with green leaves wrapped around them, he asked his first curiosity-fueled question. "So what is this particular dish called?"

As hungry as she was, Rin waited until she had taken her first bite before actually answering. On Church's side of things, he found himself rather struck with the way this girl's lips wrapped around the food he was offering her. He felt a little ashamed for being so easily flustered, but he had been unable to interact with too many women throughout the last few years, so perhaps his resilience would need time to develop...

Either way, Rin swallowed her food so she could answer the question Church had posed without being entirely rude. "Zongzi. It's made of sticky rice and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves."

"Do you eat it often?"

"For breakfast, yeah. It's a really common choice in Jiaxing."

Offering her another mouth-full, Church waited until she swallowed again before asking her a more personal question. "Is Jiaxing your hometown?"

Rin seemed averse to sharing anything personal at first, but she knew it was a harmless and even normal question to be asked, especially in a school with so much racial diversity.

"Yeah. Jiaxing is in the Zhejiang Province. It's on the eastern coast."

Eager to keep the conversation going lest it come to an awkward standstill, Church wracked his brain for something relevant to the topic. "Hmm... isn't the provincial capital of the Zhejiang Province Hangzhou?"

Cocking a surprised eyebrow at him, Rin actually seemed impressed by this piece of knowledge. "You actually know about provincial capitals? That's pretty impressive: most foreigners don't know anything about them, especially westerners..."

Since it was a roundabout form of praise, Church tried to shrug it off modestly. He had always been very interested in other cultures, especially since the introduction of Infinite Stratos ten years ago had brought the world closer together than ever before.

Seeing that he wasn't going to immediately ask another question, Rin decided to pose one of her own. "Say, why are you down here so early anyway? You look like you haven't slept in forever as it is."

Assuming that she was referring to the dark bags under his eyes, Church grumbled to himself mentally. Forever may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but he certainly hadn't slept in over eighteen hours. He certainly hadn't gotten any last night. "What are you talking about? I thought breakfast was at six? Though now that you've mentioned it, shouldn't there be way more students here right now if that's true...?"

Rin directed a slightly pitiable look at the boy across from her as she revealed the truth. "Breakfast is at eight, actually. The cafeteria is open even now for students who are early-risers, but officially breakfast is at eight. Who told you it was at six?"

With this piece of news revealed, Church struggled to restrain himself as his grip nearly snapped Rin's chopsticks in two. _You mean to tell me that I could have at least slept for two hours? Chifuyu Orimura, you demon..._

Before Church could give Rin an answer, and more importantly before he could accidentally break her eating utensils, a shadow passed over the two conversationalists. Both Church and Rin turned to face the newcomer, who was none other than yet another Representative Candidate.

Church immediately recognized the waist length blonde hair and azure colored eyes that only England's Representative possessed (Besides that, she was the only student around in a full-length dress). The young British 'lady' eyed both of the table's occupants coldly, but said nothing.

After a few moments of silence, Rin spoke to the girl that had interrupted her breakfast and the conversation she reluctantly admitted to enjoying. "What do you want, Cecilia?"

The blonde humphed disdainfully. "Do I need to want anything? I can stand wherever I please!"

Not at all up to these antics in her current state, Rin rolled her eyes. "Well could you kindly stand anywhere but there? Your presence is increasing my suffering. Exponentially."

"Shut up, Rin. You're just too ashamed to admit that you're glad I came to rescue you from this pervert!"

Unsure of why he was suddenly the topic of conversation, Church's response was more shock than anything else. "P-pervert?!"

Cecilia jabbed a finger at him accusingly. "Don't think I've forgotten what you did to Rin! Not that I care about her personally, but what you do to one girl you'll do to all of them! Especially to someone as beautiful and attractive as me!"

Both Church and Rin looked at the self-glorifying blonde in front of them and inwardly sighed. It was much too early in the morning for this kind of thing. Fortunately, another girl, with long dark hair of roughly equal length to Cecilia's, grabbed Cecilia by the ear and began to pull her away.

"Leave them alone, Cecilia. If anything you should be glad that she's spending time with someone besides Ichika. One less 'rival', right?"

Rin angrily shouted through Cecilia's protests at the girl dragging her away. "Hey! What was with that emphasis just then?! Don't think that just because you're tall and well-endowed and all doesn't mean I... was never a competitor..."

Rin sunk down into her seat as she realized how much the odds were stacked against her. She grumbled to herself incoherently as she dwelt on it, letting proverbial storm clouds accumulate over her small frame in droves.

Looking back and forth between the two girls, Church wondered how deep their rivalry over Orimura went. Of course there was no way to know, so he turned back to find Rin mournfully staring at her breakfast, apparently having lost her appetite in her misery.

Church thought of ways he could comfort her, but most of them would have required awkward comments that may or may not be accepted by the girl as compliments. He decided to settle for the safest thing he could think to say. Hopefully she would just accept his honesty and not think he was trying to make a move on her.

"If it makes you feel any better Rinin, I uh... don't think she totally outclasses you or anything..."

Rin didn't even lift her face from the table, but instead replied accusingly. "Liar. She's tall and stacked. Everything a guy wants in a girl right?"

Church sighed, wrongly accused of the common stereotype that men only cared about looks. Not that he didn't care, but he still valued personality too. "Well, looks aren't everything you know. Personality is a big part of a successful relationship with someone as well. And besides... she is attractive, but it's not like those qualities are the only kind a guy can appreciate you know? I think girls of your caliber are just as attractive."

Realizing that this all sounded very awkward, Church blushed as he said that last part, mentally comparing the sizes of the girls he had met so far. Sure, large was nice... but honestly Church would have been happy with any of them, so to hell with preferences. On another note he was surprised that Cerberus had stayed quiet for the duration of the morning, especially considering all of the interaction going on.

Pulling himself away from his own thoughts, Church returned his attention to Rin, but much to his dismay, she was staring at him judgmentally. Afraid that he had offended her, Church scrambled to find some way to salvage the conversation, when Rin burst out laughing. At a loss for words, Church said nothing.

"My 'caliber' huh? That's got to be the most polite way of referring to it that I've ever heard... well I guess it's better than being blunt about it, huh?"

Glad to see that the situation had gone better than expected, Church grinned at her. "Heh, yeah... and hey, look on the bright side: Bodewig's even worse off than you are..."

Rin laughed again, apparently amused by the notion. She didn't exactly like having her size pointed out (in fact she absolutely hated it), but at least this guy wasn't doing so in a negative light.

As for him, Church found both her laugh and her smile to be rather adorable. It was nice to hear considering her physical state.

"Yeah, I bet if Laura cut her hair shorter, everyone would take her for a guy..."

The two acquaintances shared a laugh at the thought of it, but it was soon cut short by the feeling of a malicious gaze resting on them from afar. Church turned to face the last place he had seen Laura, only to find her a few tables closer, staring at he and his companion with a disturbing amount of menace.

_She's closing in for the kill...  
_

Rin seemed to notice the approaching danger as well. "Uh... m-maybe we should leave..."

Church nodded in agreement, and helped his fellow comrade in escaping Bodewig's rapidly approaching doom. They both escaped into the hallway leading to the infirmary, and sped as quickly as possible, considering Rin's condition, away from an untimely demise.

* * *

Upon finally reaching the door to the infirmary, Church left Rin to sleep her way through the rest of the day. But upon finding that the nurse on duty was absent at the moment, he had to help the injured girl into her bed as well, careful to avoid bumping her sensitive arms, torso, or practically anything. At least her legs had miraculously escaped serious injury, even if they were all scraped and bruised as well.

Once done with that, Church turned to leave before he outstayed his welcome, but Rin's voice stopped him short. "Hey, hold on a minute."

Now on at least relatively good terms with the girl and probably beyond the level of complete stranger, Church turned to face her with a smile on his face. "Yeah?"

"You can uh, just call me Rin now. I think our relationship is at a level where that's fine."

Church resisted the urge to put more sarcasm in his words than necessary. "Glad to know I'm on the same level as practically everyone else..."

Not incredibly pleased with his response, Rin rolled her eyes at him. "Well if you're going to act so ungrateful, maybe I should withdraw my next offer while I have the chance."

His curiosity piqued by the mention of a second offer, Church simply cocked an eyebrow at the girl. "And what would that be?"

Clearly dialed in on how eager Church was to hear this, Rin smirked at him. "Since you even dared to compare a fast food chain to real Chinese cuisine, I'm gonna make you that dish I told you about, so you'll know what real Chinese food tastes like and never speak such terrible heresy ever again."

A bit flustered at the thought of a girl cooking for him, even if it was only to prove a point, Church stuttered out his response. "R-really? Thanks... um... when?"

Rin gave him an look of mockery, although the smile it was accompanied with let Church know it was sarcastic. "Well not now, of course. I can barely move on pain medication, much less cook. Give me a week or so. Maybe until Saturday? That's only five days away."

While he truly wondered if Rin's wounds could possibly be healed by then, Church nodded with satisfaction. "I see. Well, I look forward to your masterful culinary work, Chef Rin. But for now, I think you need to rest. I've never seen anyone look as tired as you do right now."

"I would agree with you, but you look pretty awful yourself."

Knowing that she was probably right about that, Church could only shrug in reply as he watched his conversational partner lean into her pillow and close her eyes, leaving him one final piece of advice before she drifted off to sleep. "Keep an eye out for Laura out there..."

Church didn't know if the petite Chinese girl had meant that as a joke or not, but she had already dozed off, so he couldn't ask her. With no other reason to stay now, he turned to leave the infirmary, but bumped into someone at the exit. Fortunately, the person in question was just barely shorter than he was, so it couldn't have been Bodewig with a dangerous weapon to maul him with.

 _Maybe it's the nurse?_ He thought hopefully.

He lowered his eyes to meet the face of a stern Chifuyu. She pushed him back a few feet, and handed him some sort of toolkit.

Church looked at the clunky thing with dismay. "What's this for?"

"This is for the gaping whole in the Academy's gym wall."

Not at all glad to hear that, Church stared at her. "I thought I got a consolation punishment by waking up at six? After all, breakfast is _actually_ at eight, isn't it?"

"You did, but you seemed to be enjoying yourself with Huang, so I can't really call it punishment, now can I? Anyway, if you don't fix it within a week, I'll inform Bodewig of your location at all times of the day."

"How did you even know-"

Chifuyu leaned in close end leveled the most eerie gaze Church had ever seen at him. "I know _everything_ that goes on around here. You can't hide anything from me."

Church decided to say nothing, and merely walked away from the nightmare he knew would haunt him later. As Chifuyu watched him go, she wondered if he would actually go out of his way to do something that wasn't actually his job just because she had scared him.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm well aware that Rin is the overall least favorite member of the main cast: but will that stop me from making her an extremely endearing character in this story? No, no it will not.


End file.
